Original post date: 7 Jun 2014
My great uncle George John Seale was born in Kingston, Ontario. George was a Stenographer and went to Montreal in early 1900 to work for the Royal Bank. He boarded with the Jackson family, and in 1902 he married Clara Annie Jackson. George John and Clara Annie had one daughter, Clara Eleanor in 1904, and soon after he was asked to manage their Niagara Falls branch. By 1907 George was named the manager of their Grain Exchange branch in Winnipeg.
At the onset of WW I in 1914 George, coming from a long line of
military men, was eager to enlist, but he was refused by the medical examiner.
He was very disappointed. Then in 1918 the call went out across Canada
for help to the armies through the Red Cross. George was asked by his
fellow citizens to give up his business and become the administrative manager
of the Red Cross in Manitoba. That very day a room was secured for Red Cross
administration and money started pouring in from people all across the
province. Besides their relentless help to soldiers fighting overseas and their
families at home, George had the insight to know that when the soldiers came
home from war they were going to need special help. Before the war even
ended he set up a Hospice as temporary lodging for returning soldiers heading
west. He got help for wounded soldiers and their dependents. He also
conceived of the idea of Sheltered Workshops where soon he had over forty men
deemed unfit for work earning an honest living along commercial lines.
One night George was talking to his wife and daughter at the dinner
table about new ideas he had. Wanting to do some chores later he went upstairs
to changes out of his good clothes and dropped dead suddenly of a brain
hemorrhage at the age of 43. George John Seale, The Commissioner for the
Red Cross of Manitoba had died, and the whole province mourned.
During times of war the women are asked to help out by rationing food,
rolling bandages and knitting socks. You know…. women’s work. Those who
could became nurses to help out at home and abroad however they could. Then
came the call for real work. Men’s work.
My Mom worked at the Canadian Power Boat Company that made motor
torpedo boats used in war. When there were no longer orders for boats coming
in, the company retooled and made parts for de Havilland Mosquito bombers. My
mother’s sister joined the RCAF Women’s Division. These women worked as
clerks, cooks, equipment assistants, fabric workers, hospital assistants,
drivers, photographers, meteorologists and telephone operators, and overseas in
Operations plotting locations of RCAF planes and enemy German aircraft. Their
motto was “Women who serve so men can fly!”
Mom and her sister
What
did your stay-at-home ancestors do during time of war?
Volunteering in the First World War
WW2 service women in Canada
Women in the RCAF
RCAF Women
Canadian war women on videos
CBC Digital archive - women at war
Canada Remembers Women in the Canadian Military
MSN Women in War photos
Forgotten Women of War
US War Jobs for Women
US Women Marines In World War I
Silver Cross Mothers
Queen Alexandra’s Royal Navy Nursing Service
British Army Nurse Records
Nurses and Serving Women Australia
8 Female fighters of WW2
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