by Sam McBride

In 2006 Margaret “Bunty” Peterson Camozzi of Trail contacted my uncle Peter Dewdney with recollections of working in the 1930s for his father E.E.L. “Ted” Dewdney as a bank clerk at the Bank of Montreal in Nelson, and also of working as a stenographer for the Wood Vallance Hardware Company in the 1940s, when my other grandfather, Roland Leigh McBride (1881-1959), was manager.  My Dewdney cousins recently passed on the fascinating letter to me, knowing of my interest in discovering, and sharing, the family history.

Bunty noted that Ted Dewdney (1880-1952) was a very special person to her, perhaps because she was the first female bank clerk in Nelson, and he appreciated her work.

IMG_1222Her story about a remarkable day at the Wood Vallance store in early February 1945 during World War Two may be a bit of an exaggeration as to driving time between Trail and Nelson, but it illustrates the great sense of excitement about a father getting a long-distance phone call from his son Leigh in Switzerland after his release from a German prison camp in a prisoner exchange.

The last time R.L. McBride saw son Leigh was when he was on leave in his hometown of Nelson in December 1942 before travelling to Britain to join his Seaforth Highlander regiment in training in preparation for war action.  Leigh was a 25-year-old lieutenant when he landed on the beaches of the Allied invasion force that attacked Sicily in July 1943.  He led troops in battles across the island of Sicily and then through mainland Italy, including the famous Battle of Ortona in Christmas 1943.  He was promoted to captain and then major.  On May 23, 1944 Leigh was the only survivor of his unit that received a direct shell blasts from German defenders during the attack by Canadian forces on the Hitler Line at Cassino.  He was discovered unconscious by German soldiers, who took him to a hospital in Rome and later to Oflag 7B and other prison camps in Germany.  He had wounds to his arms, legs and face and initially could not see at all, but eventually recovered sight in one eye but his left eye was lost forever.

As the company headquarters did not know what happened to him, Leigh was listed as “missing in action” for four months until word came back through the Red Cross on Sept. 20, 1944 that he was in a German POW camp.  His parents were ecstatic to hear that he was alive and recovering.  Tragically, just two days later, on Sept. 22, 1944 they received a telegram from Ottawa that their other son, Capt. Kenneth Gilbert McBride, also with the Seaforths, was killed in action near Rimini, Italy.

The only good news they received in the next few days was that Leigh’s injuries were extensive enough that he might qualify for a prisoner exchange.  In early February 1945 he was sent to Constance, Switzerland for the prisoner exchange, and came home via the port of Marseilles on the Swedish repatriation ship Gripsholm, which landed in New York City, where he transferred to train service that took him to Vancouver, where he was greeted by his mother, Win Foote McBride.  They returned to Nelson on the Kettle Valley Railway

Some time soon after he was free, arrangements were made that allowed him to phone his father in Nelson.  Bunty recalled that word came from authorities on a Thursday at about 9:55 am that the call would come through at 10:30 am at the Wood Vallance store.  The problem was that R.L. McBride was about 50 miles away in Trail meeting with his biggest client, the Consolidated Mining and Smelting Company of Canada Ltd., which he did every Thursday.

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scan of memories of Bunty Camozzi written in 2006

R.L. told his driver, Les McEachern, to drive as fast as he could, and somehow they made it to Nelson in time to take the call.   Bunty noted that the joy in the office was such that there was not much work accomplished in the store that day.  She said it was a rare example of “good news” during the war years when bad news tended to dominate the lives of residents and their loved ones in the military.

As someone who has driven from Trail to Nelson many times over the years, I find it hard to believe the drive could have been done in just 35 minutes.  Even today, with major improvements to the highway over that last 75 years, someone would have to have a high-power car and substantially exceed every speed limit to come close to that travel time.  But it was obviously a dramatic feat of driving which could easily have ended tragically in a crash, particularly as there was a problem with the car’s brakes.

Bunty Camozzi died in Trail in 2012 at age 94.  I am so pleased that she took the time to record her memories of my two grandfathers, Ted Dewdney and R.L. McBride.