Sam McBride, author of “The Bravest Canadian – Fritz Peters, VC: The Making of a Hero of Two World Wars” will launch the book in Nelson, British Columbia on Saturday, December 15th.
He will be in the lobby of the Touchstones Nelson – Museum of Art and History at 502 Vernon Street in Nelson from 1 pm to 3 pm.
While Capt. Frederic Thornton “Fritz” Peters never lived in Nelson himself, his mother Bertha Gray Peters and his sister Helen Dewdney and her family resided in Nelson from 1929 to 1969. Previously, they lived in the nearby West Kootenay communities of New Denver, Rossland and Trail as Helen’s husband Ted Dewdney was transferred around the region to manage branches of the Bank of Montreal.
After Capt. Peters’ death in an air crash near Plymouth, England in November 1942, a delegation from President Roosevelt and General Eisenhower came to Nelson in February 1944 to officially present the U.S. Distinguished Service Cross medal he earned for action in the harbour of Oran, Algeria to his mother Bertha Gray Peters as next-of-kin.
In 1946, a mountain on the west edge of Nelson was named Mount Peters in his honour. Since then, Helen Dewdney’s children and descendants have donated a number of artifacts and photographs to the museum and archives in Nelson, mostly related to the Hon. Edgar Dewdney, builder of the Dewdney Trail, who was Ted Dewdney’s uncle and legal guardian after Ted’s parents died when he was 11.
thebravestcanadian 
Dec 16, 2012 @ 07:16:59
Sam, I bought this book in the bookstore in Trail on Wed. evening – I wish I had known you were coming to Nelson, I would have loved to have you sign my copy, as I’m sending it down to Carl. I think I might have to read it before I send it off though, so it will not make it for xmas!
Anyway, I’m looking forward to it –
Cheers, Mary Jorgensen
Dec 16, 2012 @ 16:46:59
Good to hear from you, Mary. Carl knew my grandmother Helen Dewdney (Fritz Peters’ sister) really well from many visits to our house at 820 Stanley in Nelson in the late 1960s.