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Once Canada’s darling, Afghan heart patient now in hiding

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An item from the Legion Magazine.
Stephen J thorne

Stephen J. Thorne

Once Canada’s darling, Afghan heart patient now in hiding

STORY BY STEPHEN J. THORNE

 

An Afghan boy who was once Canada’s darling is now an ailing young man in hiding and in fear for his life.

Djamshid Djan Popal, who came to Canada in 2004 for life-saving heart surgery thanks to donors from across the country, has faced hardship, health issues and physical threats since he returned to his war-ravaged homeland 18 years ago.

Taliban sympathizers wrongly assumed Djamshid’s good fortune was because his father Shafiullah was a coalition informant, a spy, or some other enemy. Shafiullah, a rock breaker, was beaten several times and imprisoned for three months after the country fell to the Taliban in August 2021.

 

 

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5 Volume Collection

Sharif Tarabay

Patrol ship dedicated to Black Victoria Cross recipient

STORY BY SHARON ADAMS

On Nov. 16, 1857, William Hall earned the British Empire’s highest bravery award, the Victoria Cross. He became the third Canadian and first Nova Scotian to do so.

Hall, of Horton, N.S., was the son of former Black slaves from the United States. He worked in Hantsport shipyards, before serving on a merchant vessel, followed by a couple of years in the United States navy.

In 1852, he enlisted in the Royal Navy in England, joining the crew of HMS Rodney where he earned medals from Britain and Turkey for his service during the Crimean War, when he lent a hand to ground forces operating the heavy gun batteries.

His career prospered. He was serving on HMS Shannon, which was escorting troops to China, when it was dispatched to help quell a mutiny in India.

 

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Safe Step Walk In Tubs

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

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An item from the Legion Magazine.
Front Lines
Stephen J thorne

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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200 Greatest Canadians

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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200 Greatest Canadians
Military Milestones
Daughters of the King now mothers of Canada

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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