A Message From Our Hero

I hope you heard about our letter back from Grandpa Hamill. Mrs. Hamill wrote his answers out for us and brought us special keepsakes with his picture. The kids were happy to have heard back from him. We are going to try to get him to be our guest of honour at our "Big Dinner" later this month. Here is his letter:

Dear Miss Hall and her grade 4/5 class,

I would like to thank you for your wonderful postcards and all of your kind words. When I joined the army at 18, I never knew what I would face the years that I was overseas.

I joined the Perth Regiment, Baker Company looking for excitement and to travel the world. My father fought in WW1 and my brother was in the Air Force. We all helped our Country in different ways. While I was overseas, I met so many nice people and I was very fortunate to see so many beautiful places. I was sent to Italy, Holland, Belgium, France, England and Germany.

I missed my family and friends terribly, but I needed to be there to help my country. I was scared a lot of the time never knowing what was going to happen from minute to minute.

When I first joined the army, I didn’t know anyone. My platoon had 30 men in it and we all became fast friends. We were divided up into 3 groups and took turns going out on patrol. When I wasn’t on patrol, I was a motorcycle dispatch rider taking messages to the other soldiers at night.

We ate meat and potatoes, nothing to fancy. We definitely didn’t have any pizza or ice cream. (the first thing I had when I came home after the war was an ice cream cone!)

I never got to see Flanders Fields or any real poppies, I wasn’t stationed there. When I was in Italy, I got to see the Leaning Tower of Piza and the Vatican though.

Unfortunately 2 weeks before the war ended, I was wounded in the arm when a farmhouse my platoon was in was ambushed. One of my friends helped save me. He called for a medic and I was transported to a field hospital in Brussels. From there I was flown back to England where I stayed for 2 ½ months before I was well enough to come home to Canada.

The medals I wear are called “Tour Ribbons” of all the countries I fought in. I also have a medal from helping liberate Holland that I wear proudly! I don’t think of myself as a “Hero”, the real “Heroes” were not lucky enough to come home.

If I had any advice to give to today’s youth it would be, to stay in school and get a good education. I wish I could tell you that there is a way to ensure peace, but I’m not sure that there is. Be kind to one another, help your fellow man and be prepared to defend your country should the time come.

Yours truly,

Private Gavin John Hamill

Perth Regiment

B57650