Angie Gualtieri holds a book in her hands. Tales of Todmorden Veterans by Jack Aldred. It’s obvious this book means a lot to her.
Gualtieri recalls when the roof at her Royal Canadian Legion Todmorden, Branch 10, needed fixing. The branch couldn’t afford to fix it. Jack Aldred, a well-loved member of the branch, stepped up. Proceeds from Aldred’s helped raise money for the roof repairs.
“That’s who (Jack) was,” Gualtieri said. “A great man.”
Cathy Andrews volunteers at the Royal Canadian Legion in part as tribute to her grandfather. She said Wilfred Edwin Andrews was a quiet man who served as an acting lance corporal during the period the Great War.
He served with the 169th Battalion of the Canadian Expeditionary Force. His granddaughter, ladies auxiliary president, honours his memory.
When was 18 and in the Canadian Armed Forces, Ron Raby remembered going sleepless for days while stationed in the town of Soest, West Germany. It was 1953, during the Cold War.
“We had to sleep in tents, in weather below 45 degrees,” Raby said.
P.J. O’Neill has a strong sense of when Canada became a nation.
“Canada has never been conquered,” he said. “We’ve never had foreign enemies on our (soil).”
On Saturday, April 9, 2016, members of the Todmorden Royal Canadian Legion, Branch 10, commemorated the 99th anniversary of the Battle of Vimy Ridge in France. In April 1917, the Canadian Corps was ordered to seize Vimy Ridge, then occupied by the German Army.