The HMCS Fraser (1951-1994) was a St. Laurent-class destroyer in the Royal Canadian Navy/Canadian Forces. It was a Canadian designed and built warship.
Scope and Content
Photograph shows Fred McGuinness and his sons on board the H.M.C.S. Fraser. A plaque reads: Atlantic, Je Suis Pret, 1939-40.
Notes
Stamp of the back of the photograph reads: National Defence Photograph Canada (copyright), Please credit Nat. Def. Photo 77842.
On 23 September 1940, McGuinness was seriously injured in a naval accident when his ship ran aground; McGuinness’ leg was broken when the ship’s tow cable snapped and he spent the next 11 months convalescing at Camp Hill Hospital in Halifax, Nova Scotia. While in hospital McGuinness contracted scarlet fever and diphtheria and developed osteomyelitis as a complication of his femur facture. McGuinness returned to Winnipeg to continue his convalescence at Deer Lodge Hospital and was ultimately discharged from the navy in 1941.
Scope and Content
Photograph shows Fred McGuinness in traction in a hospital bed, possibly at Camp Hill Hospital.
Photograph shows a docked ship, possibly the HMCS Alachasse. Naval flags fly from the mast and a sailor is at the bow of the ship. A naval officer is standing on the dock near a parked vehicle.
Hubert Clayton Weidenhamer was born near Dand, Manitoba in 1926. He was raised in Dand and attended school in the Dand Consolidated School District. Weidenhamer enlisted in the Canadian Army in 1943. He became a member of the Priness Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry. Following training in Canada and England Weidenhamer was sent to Italy. He was badly wounded in battle in mid-September and died of his injuries in November 1944 at age 21. He was buried in the Ancona Military Cemetery, Ancona Italy.
Custodial History
These records were in the possession of Bea Chapin (née Weidenhamer) following their creation in the 1940s until they were donated to the S. J. McKee Archives in January 2011.
Scope and Content
Collection consists of correspondence from Hubert Clayton Weidenhamer to his sister Bea. The letters begin in the spring of 1943. Weidenhamer had enlisted in the Canadian Army in January 1943. His letters detail his induction into miltary life in Fort Garry, Winnipeg and his training experience in Canada, principally at Camp Ipperwash, Lambton County, Ontario. He relates his experience of travels on leave to Detriot. Weidenhamer left Canada from Halifax in late 1943 and arrived in Great Britain in December for additional military training. In England, maintaining his morale, waiting for deployment, and coming to terms with British currency were challenges. Transferred to the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry, Weidenhamer was deployed to Italy in March 1944. The letters dating from March 1944 to September relate in oblique fashion his's experience of military life on the Italian frontier as the Canadian Army fought its way north - "hard fighting" - and the impact of the war on Italian cities and the countryside. He was "proud" of his conduct in action. Weidenhamer's last letter is dated September 11, 1944.
Collection also includes correspondence on Weidenhamer's behalf from his military Chaplin; two press clippings dealing with his military career, and several facimiles of telegrams and correspondence from the Canadian government officials related to Weidenhamer's death and burial in Italy.
For biographical information on Sarah Persis Darrach see RG 1 Brandon College fonds, Series 9: Clark Hall women's residence.
Custodial History
See collection level description of the Maureen Johnson collection (10-2009) for custodial history.
Scope and Content
Group photograph of four nurses and one male military officer standing in front of a brick building in England where Sarah Persis Johnson was stationed. Johnson is standing on the far right.
For biographical information on Sarah Persis Darrach see RG 1 Brandon College fonds, Series 9: Clark Hall women's residence.
Custodial History
See collection level description of the Maureen Johnson collection (10-2009) for custodial history.
Scope and Content
Photograph shows staff and possibly patients gathered around a dining table at Christmas. The table is located in the hospital building. Other patients are visible in their beds. Sarah Persis Johnson is standing second from the front on the right side of the table.
Photograph shows a crowded and muddy Brandon street. A military parade consisting of a band and mounted cavalry fill the street. A banner extends across the street reading: Brandon Heartily Wecomes Her Returning Heros.
Emulsion is cracking and photograph is starting to warp
History / Biographical
Suffield, Alberta, is situated approximately 40km northwest of Medicine Hat, Alberta. A few "large explosive events" (100 to 500 tons) were conducted at the Defence Research Board's (DRB) Suffield Experimental Station in the 1960s. On 19 January 1961, Medicine Hat citizens felt tremors in the community as a result of five tons of TNT being detonated at the station. The station director attributed this anomaly to freak atmospheric and weather conditions. At the time the DRB was testing the effects of shock waves on military equipment.
In July 1964, the Suffield Experimental Station detonated 30,600 blocks of TNT - 500 tons - to test the largest, non-nuclear, non-confined, surface blast. Placed in various sections radiating from ground zero to test the effects of the blast were targets, dummy-men, miscellaneous instruments, mines, model ships, nose cones, repirators, vehicles, subterranean chambers, shelters, tunnels, foxholes, and trenches. Several hundred people were expected to observe the blast, including 80 "official observers" and a VIP party of military and research personnel from Canada, the United States, and Britain.
(Sources: "Hellyer Heads VIP List Coming Here for SES Blast," Medicine Hat News, 09 July 1964, 7; Patrick J.Roe, "Blast Area Awaits a Cloudless Day," Medicine Hat News, 16 July 1964, 2; "Suffield Explosion Felt Here," Medicine Hat News, 19 January 1961, 7)
Scope and Content
Photograph shows a detonation at the Suffield Experimental Station.
Suffield, Alberta, is situated approximately 40km northwest of Medicine Hat, Alberta. A few "large explosive events" (100 to 500 tons) were conducted at the Defence Research Board's (DRB) Suffield Experimental Station in the 1960s. On 19 January 1961, Medicine Hat citizens felt tremors in the community as a result of five tons of TNT being detonated at the station. The station director attributed this anomaly to freak atmospheric and weather conditions. At the time the DRB was testing the effects of shock waves on military equipment.
In July 1964, the Suffield Experimental Station detonated 30,600 blocks of TNT - 500 tons - to test the largest, non-nuclear, non-confined, surface blast. Placed in various sections radiating from ground zero to test the effects of the blast were targets, dummy-men, miscellaneous instruments, mines, model ships, nose cones, repirators, vehicles, subterranean chambers, shelters, tunnels, foxholes, and trenches. Several hundred people were expected to observe the blast, including 80 "official observers" and a VIP party of military and research personnel from Canada, the United States, and Britain.
(Sources: "Hellyer Heads VIP List Coming Here for SES Blast," Medicine Hat News, 09 July 1964, 7; Patrick J.Roe, "Blast Area Awaits a Cloudless Day," Medicine Hat News, 16 July 1964, 2; "Suffield Explosion Felt Here," Medicine Hat News, 19 January 1961, 7)
Scope and Content
Photograph shows observors waiting for a detonation at the Suffield Experimental Station. Camera operators can be seen on the right waiting to film the blast.
Suffield, Alberta, is situated approximately 40km northwest of Medicine Hat, Alberta. A few "large explosive events" (100 to 500 tons) were conducted at the Defence Research Board's (DRB) Suffield Experimental Station in the 1960s. On 19 January 1961, Medicine Hat citizens felt tremors in the community as a result of five tons of TNT being detonated at the station. The station director attributed this anomaly to freak atmospheric and weather conditions. At the time the DRB was testing the effects of shock waves on military equipment.
In July 1964, the Suffield Experimental Station detonated 30,600 blocks of TNT - 500 tons - to test the largest, non-nuclear, non-confined, surface blast. Placed in various sections radiating from ground zero to test the effects of the blast were targets, dummy-men, miscellaneous instruments, mines, model ships, nose cones, repirators, vehicles, subterranean chambers, shelters, tunnels, foxholes, and trenches. Several hundred people were expected to observe the blast, including 80 "official observers" and a VIP party of military and research personnel from Canada, the United States, and Britain.
(Sources: "Hellyer Heads VIP List Coming Here for SES Blast," Medicine Hat News, 09 July 1964, 7; Patrick J.Roe, "Blast Area Awaits a Cloudless Day," Medicine Hat News, 16 July 1964, 2; "Suffield Explosion Felt Here," Medicine Hat News, 19 January 1961, 7)
Scope and Content
Photograph shows a detonation at the Suffield Experimental Station.
Suffield, Alberta, is situated approximately 40km northwest of Medicine Hat, Alberta. A few "large explosive events" (100 to 500 tons) were conducted at the Defence Research Board's (DRB) Suffield Experimental Station in the 1960s. On 19 January 1961, Medicine Hat citizens felt tremors in the community as a result of five tons of TNT being detonated at the station. The station director attributed this anomaly to freak atmospheric and weather conditions. At the time the DRB was testing the effects of shock waves on military equipment.
In July 1964, the Suffield Experimental Station detonated 30,600 blocks of TNT - 500 tons - to test the largest, non-nuclear, non-confined, surface blast. Placed in various sections radiating from ground zero to test the effects of the blast were targets, dummy-men, miscellaneous instruments, mines, model ships, nose cones, repirators, vehicles, subterranean chambers, shelters, tunnels, foxholes, and trenches. Several hundred people were expected to observe the blast, including 80 "official observers" and a VIP party of military and research personnel from Canada, the United States, and Britain.
(Sources: "Hellyer Heads VIP List Coming Here for SES Blast," Medicine Hat News, 09 July 1964, 7; Patrick J.Roe, "Blast Area Awaits a Cloudless Day," Medicine Hat News, 16 July 1964, 2; "Suffield Explosion Felt Here," Medicine Hat News, 19 January 1961, 7)
Scope and Content
Photograph shows blast targets/dummies pre-detonation at the Suffield Experimental Station.
