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REVIEW RICHMONDREVIEW.COM
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 7, 2014
48 PAGES
The call of war Two Richmond High students enlisted late in the Second World War despite perilous odds by Matthew Hoekstra Staff Reporter
T
he narrow twolane road rises slightly over a picturesque canal in rural England, just outside a small village nearly two hours away from the capital of London. On a clear day you can see miles of green countryside.
Not much has changed here in Yelvertoft since the Second World War. Farm fields and windswept trees dominate a landscape away from Continental Europe, where tens of thousands of Canadians stood alongside their Allies on brutal battlefields to give their lives. There’s charm in this old English village. Yelvertoft has a population of under 1,000, but still has proud institutions: a butcher, a post office, a school, three churches and the Knightley Arms—a pub and gathering place. Brick houses are built alongside each other and line the village’s main street leading to a war memorial. On one Sunday each year,
City of Richmond Archives photo Air gunner Ellwyn Cooper, a Richmond High student who was killed in action Dec. 5, 1944.
14 names are read out at the memorial—names of men who arrived on Yelvertoft’s doorstep in 1944. It was a tragic circumstance that forever linked this tiny village to Lulu Island and two of Richmond High’s own.
Determined to enlist War has always brought death and destruction. It has always torn families apart. But when war arrived, Canadians responded. When Canada announced it
“We honour those who have given their lives serving Canadians and helping people of other nations.”
was at war with Germany in 1939 volunteers came from farms and from cities. They wanted to do their country proud. It was family tradition. It was adventure. It was just the right thing to do. Richmond teenagers Ian Myron and Ellwyn Cooper were too young to enlist at the onset of war, but they were determined to be among the one million Canadians who would join the fight for peace and freedom. See Page 25
City of Richmond Archives photo 1997 35 8. Ian Myron in his Royal Canadian Air Force uniform poses for a photo on the fender of a 1934 Ford in 1944.
Laura NASTASA
November 11
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