Archeologists working at Colonial Williamsburg in Virgina unearthed bricks that are believed to have been part of continental army barracks burned down by British forces during the American Revolution. [Colonial Williamsburg Foundation]

Continental army barracks burned by British discovered in Colonial Williamsburg

STORY BY STEPHEN J. THORNE

Archeologists in Colonial Williamsburg, Va., are exploring the remains of a continental army barracks burned by the British during the Revolutionary War.

The researchers have unearthed bricks and artifacts, including parts of weapons, ceramics, a belt buckle and a glass button. They also found lead musket balls riddled with teeth marks left by bored soldiers who, unaware of its laundry list of health risks, would chew on the sweet-tasting lead.

Eighteenth-century maps of the 1.2-1.6-hectare site and other historical documents have long suggested that military housing existed near what is now a visitor centre. It wasn’t until they began excavating last year, however, that researchers found bricks from the buildings’ chimneys.

Built in the midst of the 1775-1783 war for American independence, the barracks could house up to 2,000 soldiers and 100 horses. But they didn’t last.

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Author Ian Pegg’s book, Death and Heroes – Army Chaplains in World War 2 will be published in hardback in summer 2025. [Chiselbury Publishing]

Chaplain historian highlights Canadian padres of WW II

STORY BY ALEX BOWERS

“What makes a man go to war without a weapon to serve on the front line in some of the harshest situations, sometimes giving up his freedom willingly, and in other times, making the ultimate sacrifice?” wondered author Ian Pegg about chaplains in the Second World War.

His curiosity for the answer led him to write, Death and Heroes: Army Chaplains in World War II, due to be released this summer.

The book is the British civil servant-turned-military historian’s debut. “I wanted to understand who these padres were as people,” noted Pegg. “I like personal stories.”

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Dr. Edward L. Thorne after training in 1941, about the time he met his future wife, Edith, a civilian navy decoder charting the progress of convoys out of Sydney, N.S.
[RCAF]

Pictures from my father’s wartime photo album

STORY BY STEPHEN J. THORNE

I was raised on stories and pictures of the Second World War. My father, Dr. Edward L. Thorne, was an air force medical officer who served three of his five Royal Canadian Air Force years (1942-45) overseas with fighter, coastal and bomber squadrons.

The experience shaped the rest of his life. And all of mine.

As I wrote in one of my first features for Legion Magazine, a memoir, “he rarely talked about it and, when he did, it was with such nostalgia, deep emotion and soaring reverence for those with whom he served that he sparked my curiosity and captivated my imagination from childhood to this very day.”

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Ottawa lad, Donaldson (Buddy) Holloway (right), who was killed in WW II, and his close friend Reg Harrison. After the war, Harrison would go on to marry Holloway’s bereaved fiance. [TheCanadianWarMuseum]

Veterans’ post-WW II experience examined in new Canadian War Museum exhibit

STORY BY ALEX BOWERS

It’s no secret that the widely known “greatest generation” is fast disappearing.

In August 1995, there were said to be 501,690 living Second World War veterans in Canada.

In 2010, that number had decreased to around 163,000.

As recently as 2023, combined figures for WW II and the Korean War indicated that little more than 9,200 veterans of those conflicts were still alive. That figure has almost certainly declined exponentially throughout the last two years and beyond.

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