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HIGHLANDS COMMUNITY LEAGUE MEMORIAL HALL
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The photograph shows the hall in 1993 In the late 1940's a new clubhouse was finally built. Adby Demolition donated material salvaged from an internment camp in southern Alberta. The "Highlands Community league Memorial Centre" was named in honour of "local soldiers who were killed in WW II." The 1912 clubhouse was removed in the early 1950s and a second new building, with change rooms on the ground floor and a members' lounge and caretaker's residence upstairs, was begun in 1954 and opened in 1957. Both later structures are still standing. The Highlands Community League provided educational, recreational and self-government opportunities to Highlanders. Today it continues to do so for a population in excess of 1200 people. Information and the photograph taken from the website of the Highlands Community League. 
In 2006, a motion to demolish the Highlands Community League Hall was presented to the members of the Highlands Community League. Thus began the process to "remove the Hall from the area". While the move was completely justified from technical information received, the road to this point had not been easy and involved some emotional discussions. Perhaps the following account will explain why. The building was not just a "hall" to some, for it was dedicated to those men (and one must assume women) of the community who had given their lives in the Second World War. A different slant now emerges. The building was ceremonially dedicated on Oct. 21, 1948. According to an Edmonton Journal report two days later, there was no glorification of war, just a remembering of those who left but did not return. Amid a gathering of dignitaries from civic and provincial governments, local churches and organizations, hope was expressed that "the building would be respected, looked after and used by community members". Oddly, those who were lost were (apparently) not mentioned by name! The local Canadian Legion has no record of where men lived who were lost; the civic, provincial and federal governments were not able to provide last known addresses of those killed. The Loyal Edmonton Regiment museum could not help either. So, where to turn? The local churches of course. Although the United and Anglican churches have fitting memorials, they include soldiers from the parish, which extends beyond the borders of our community. St. Clare has no such record, one other church did not respond to a request for a list. Henderson's Directory, the saving grace for many history projects, does not help. It gives only names for specific years. And there is no way to tie Church names to residential names without research beyond the capabilities of this writer. A request for names through Highlands-Bellevue Highlights produced no new names from those listed here, all men. Continued below.... If a new structure is built or a present building modified , whether it be designated hall or centre or something else, perhaps those given the authority to do so will remember, by some visible means, that the Community League Hall was dedicated to those who gave their lives in the Second World War. Because of that, we can enjoy whatever comes on that site, whether building, rink, tennis court or garden. If you can identify individuals from the Highlands community in the following list, or if you know others from the community who died in action during any war or peacekeeping effort, please contact John Tidridge, jtidridge@interbaun.com. Tidridge apologizes for, in the first instance,the lack of initials... these being added as they can be determined/verified. At the United Church the Memorial is in Old English script and while John is old..... In returning to St. Mary's it was discovered that the names recorded as being killed in action were in fact from W.W. I. It seems appropriate however, that these names should be commemorated. |
The Highlands Community League was formed from the Highlands Parent-Teacher Association in 1921. In its first year, bowling greens and a baseball diamond were build, and a skating rink was operated on local tennis courts in the winter. The League had ambitions for a new, "larger facility - a step up from its present clubhouse". With prominent citizens such as A.U.G. Bury (see #11) on the executive, this seemed an attainable goal. However, lease problems, the Great Depression, and WW II succeeded on another to delay the project.
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BURCHELL, Thomas Edward (1883-1916) Private. Reg. No. 231467 Spo-rtsman Battalion 202.
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LOUTIT, Harry Private |
OWEN, Herbert, Private. .Possibly Herbert William Owen, who died May 28, 1917 at 38 years of age. He served with the Al-berta Regiment, Reg. No. 100698. He was the husband of Ada Owen of Edmonton. For more information click here |
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REED, George Private
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AITKIN, A.
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BROADBENT, James Carson |
BURTON |
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CAMPBELL, A.H.(?) |
HERON, Frank Brown Graham.
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JINKS, Leslie |
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Flying Officer Reg. # J/20179. Died September 20, 1944 26 years of age. Parents: Capt. John & Annie Matheson. Wife: Mary Irene all of Edmonton For more infor-mation click here |
Flight Sergeant Reg. # R/105883 RCAF. Died March 13, 1943. For more information click here |
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MORRISON, Richard Cecil
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PHILLIPS, R.J. . |
ROBBIE, Ian Crichton |
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Sgt. # R/61075 RCAF Died August 15, 1941 at 22 years of age. Parents: Henry P & Emily. For more infor-mation click here |
RCAF Died September 1,1941 story appears further on
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Over 200 names check-ed without a connection |
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Private Reg. # M/102622 Calgary Highlanders, R.C.I.C. Died December 1, 1944 at 30 years of age. Parents: Lewis F & Mary Annie. Husband of Elizabeth Seton Wilson. Buried in the Neth-erlands, for more infor-mation click here |
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In 1940, Highlands resident Newton Van Allen was a Grade 12 student at Eastwood High School. Like so many other young men and women of the time, he thought of military service in the Second World War as a chance tu see the world and have exciting adventures. He also hoped that he might be able to write about those adventures some day. Sadly, just over a year after Newton joined the Royal Canadian Air Force, his mother received word that her son would not be coming home. For security reasons, the family did not receive any information about the details surrounding his death.
In 1988, however, Traer Van Allen, Newton's younger brother, finally obtained a file from the National Archives. The records showed that Newton had been assigned as a navigator with the 1 16th Bomber Renaissance Squadron. On September 9, 1941, he and seven others took off from Dartmouth, N.S., to fly supplies to a remote air base that was being built at Goose Bay, Labrador: After a six -hour flight, the plane foundered while landing at Lake Melville, and it took on water. Six members of the crew were rescued. but Newton and Flight U Raymond Shaw were never found. Through persistent letter writing and various other communications efforts, Traer was able to arrange for a memorial ceremony and the installation of a headstone for Newton and Raymond Shaw on September 9, 2001 - exactly 60 years after the young men were lost. This event took place at a small military cemetery in the Goose Bay area. See also the story "Final chapter of a boy lost at war," Edmonton Journal, September 7, 2001. Volume 12 / Number 2 HIGHLANDS HISTORICAL FOUNDATION
Edmonton Journal Rick McConnell, On summer nights, he strolled with his girl to the Highlands drug store for sodas, talking about how he wanted to be a writer after the war. He could have written about princesses and politicians, about the Roosevelt family, about the hunt for German U-boats and a top-secret air base in Goose Bay, Labrador. It would have been a true story, because it was his story. But Newton Van Allen died 60 years ago, so his brother had to step in to add the final chapter. On Sunday, Newton will get a headstone at last, a place in a small military cemetery thousands of miles from where he grew up. His younger brother, Traer, will be there for the ceremony on the shores of Lake Melville in Labrador. So, too, will the great-grandson of a former American president. "I don't like the term closure," says Traer, 70. "To me, this is an opening of the heart." Newton was a Grade 12 student at Eastwood high when he tried to sign up for military service. On his "attestation" papers, dated Aug. 28, 1940, he crossed out "married, widowed, separated, divorced" and wrote the word "single." He was 19 when he left Edmonton to train with the Royal Canadian Air Force. He wanted to write about the war," Traer recalls. "He thought even if he got shot down over Europe some day, he could write about it." In July 1941, after training in Toronto, Windsor, Winnipeg and Rivers, Man., Newton boarded a train for Dartmouth, N.S., where he was assigned as a navigator with the 116th Bomber Reconnaissance Squadron, scouring the North Atlantic for German submarines. In a letter home, written Aug. 17, 1941, Newton recalled the train ride, where he met a mother and two little girls with "straight white hair". "You've probably guessed it," he wrote, "they were Princess Wilhelmina of Holland and her two little daughters." The Queen had fled the Netherlands in 1940 after the Nazis invaded and spent the rest of the war in exile. It was his last letter home. On September 9, 1941, Newton and seven others took off from Dartmouth to fly supplies 1,000 km north, to a remote air base being built at Goose Bay. One of the architects of the base was Elliott Roosevelt, whose father, Franklin, led the U.S. to war three months later . After a six-hour flight, Newton's plane landed in heavy seas near North West River, across the lake from Goose Bay. The plane foundered and took on water. Capt. Roosevelt was among those who tried to save the crew. Six men were rescued; Sgt. Newton Van Allen and Flight Lt. Raymond Shaw were never found. "He was my hero," says Traer, who was 10 at the time. "His death crushed me. It threw off the rest of my life." Newton was born in Seattle on Feb. 24, 1921. His parents later divorced and his mother, Ruby, returned home to Vancouver. She was working in the Banff Springs Hotel in 1925 when she met George Van Allen, a member of a prominent family that settled in New York state in the 1630s. George Harold Van Allen was born in 1890 on Crysler's Farm, near Morrisburg, Ont., the site of a decisive battle in the War of 1812, when 800 British troops and Canadian militia won a resounding victory over 4,000 Americans. He came to Alberta when he was 18. He taught in Lethbridge and was later principal of a Calgary high school. He studied law at the University of Alberta and was admitted to the bar in 1915. After their marriage, George and Ruby returned to Edmonton, to a house in a privileged neighbourhood on what is now 111th Avenue. As a student, Newton was active in the YMCA and delivered the Edmonton Bulletin, owned by his father's friend, Charles Campbell. He told ghost stories at night to his younger brothers, Eric, born in 1929, and Traer, born two years later. In 1935, George was elected Liberal MLA for Edmonton Highlands. The next year, his last child, Louise, was born. Soon after, George got sick and died. Newton helped raise his brothers and sister. While at Eastwood high school, he took pictures of classmates with his Leica camera. A whiz at math and trigonometry, he made the honour roll and studied German, his brother says, because he knew war was coming. When Newton signed up, Ruby Van Allen moved with her three remaining children to Vancouver. Traer, a New York psychiatrist for the last 45 years, had always wondered what happened to his oldest brother. The family knew Newton had been lost somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean, but had no details. After years of searching, in 1998 Traer obtained a file from the Canadian archives that told the story. Last year he flew to the site of the crash. He keeps a rock from the shore on the desk in his office. "It's a very beautiful place," he says of the rugged Labrador coast. On Sunday, the 60th anniversary of his brother's death, Traer will attend a church service in Goose Bay and a ceremony at a nearby cemetery to dedicate a headstone for Newton and Shaw. He will be joined by his sister, Louise, and Elliott Roosevelt III, great-grandson of the wartime president. "I'm going because I thought it would be a very nice way to pay tribute to my grandfather's memory," says Roosevelt, 38, who runs an investment firm in Dallas. "I'm looking forward to seeing what that part of Canada is like." Ruby died in 1992 in Vancouver, at age 94, never knowing what happened to her oldest boy. Now her youngest son has filled in the blanks, written, in a sense, the final word. "I used to feel his life had been wasted," says Traer. "Now, I know it wasn't. I think my brother's life had a great deal of meaning." The Highlands community recently honoured one of its fallen soldiers, Eastglen graduate Michael Yuki Hayakaze, with a plaque and children's flower bed. Who else from Highlands' history deserves similar recognition? Highlands resident John Tidridge is on a mission to discover the names of other soldiers from our community who have died in military service, whether at war or in peacekeeping. After reading in an Edmonton Journal article of 1948 that our former hall was dedicated to local soldiers who died in the Second World War, he began hoping that those names might be inscribed somewhere in the new community centre. But no names were listed in the article. Having searched the local Canadian Legion, the Loyal Edmonton Regiment museum and all levels of government, John's main source of information to date is the following list of soldiers from local parishes who died in the Second World War. If you can identify individuals from the Highlands in the following list, or if you know others from our community who died in action during any war or peacekeeping effort, please contact John Tidridge, jtidridge@interbaun.com
JUNE 4, 2011 NORWOOD LEGION This legion has a war memorial for those who lost their lives in W.W. II: John Tidridge thought it might be a source of information so called in at the office. He discovered that like the Memorial Hall the memorial is to those who lost their lives, but there is no specific list of names.
HALL DEMOLITION
May 17, 2017 Hi John,
- July 2007
HIGHLANDS COMMUNITY LEAGUE EXECUTIVE MEETING MINUTES May 23/07
HIGHLANDS COMMUNITY LEAGUE EXECUTIVE MEETING MINUTES May 28/08 In Attendance: Christine Bremner Laura England Emmy Mills Pieter Spyker Gary Luck Cheryl Mahaffy Boyd England Peter Klassen 1. Business arising from the minutes Gary noted Executive may have to re-visit the community garden fence issue. He was concerned about vandalism and theft of water barrels. Executive decided to see how the first year went and then make recommendations for next year. Boyd to enquire about touch pad locks for lounge door so gardeners have access to washrooms and drinking water. 7. Treasurers Report – The Alberta Liquor and Gaming Commission has approved a $45,000 grant to defray some of the demolition costs. However, the AGLC noted that in 1999, HCL received a $37,900 grant from for renovations to the old hall, specifically a handicap washroom and refinished floors, and has not received any paperwork proving these renovations were completed. AGLC will require this grant money back if it was not used for its original purpose. 8. Reports from direct |
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John Tidridge
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