DND/LAC/3395589

Remember me: Soldier’s remains identified 106 years after battle

STORY BY STEPHEN J. THORNE

Harry Atherton was just 19 years old when he left the factories, foundries and collieries of his home in Tyldesley, an ancient mill town in the north of England, and came to forge a new life in Canada.

For a young man with Canada in his sights, he couldn’t have found a spot much farther away, or much different, from his home, settling as he did in McBride, B.C., a Rocky Mountain village that in 2021 numbered just 588 people.

It was 1913, a fortuitous time for a carpenter such as Atherton in a place like McBride.

Far from the Roman road that ran through his hometown where urbanization and industrialization took root in the 19th century, McBride was a young settlement located on Mile 90 of the brand-new Grand Trunk Pacific Railway.

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Canadian Flygirls

STORY BY SHARON ADAMS

Female pilots had broken endurance, altitude and speed records before the Second World War, but their hopes of wartime flying careers were stopped in Canada by a thick glass ceiling. Only a handful of very determined Canadian female pilots managed a wartime flying career. And they had to leave the country to do it. Discover some of the amazing Canadian women who fought their way into the skies.

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PL-37207, DND ARCHIVES

How Aircraftman Karl Gravell earned the George Cross

STORY BY SHARON ADAMS

Karl Gravell was a Canadian for only four short years before he gave his life for his new country.

Born in Sweden in 1922, his family emigrated to Canada in 1937, becoming naturalized citizens in September.

Gravell’s interest in aviation and led him to join the Royal Canadian Air Force after he graduated high school. He signed up in March 1941, and in May, while waiting to train as a wireless air gunner, he was posted to No. 12 Service Flying Training School in Brandon, Man.

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More from Military Milestones

• Overcoming mines and weather, Allied forces take back Walcheren
• Trainbusting Canadians busting records in Korea
• Daughters of the King now mothers of Canada

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