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Note: Time Line: Born 1912 Wallesey
Wales on Vacation 1913 to 1926 Canadian Field
School in Wallesey 1918? to 1925?
Timmins Birch St. 1926
School in Timmins- Timmins High 1926 to 1930/31?
Work- McIntyre Mine 1931 to ?
Married 1934
Schumacher Ontario (see May Tinsley)
Work 1934 to 1943?
Airforce 1943 to 1946: Brandon Manitoba, Winsor? Ontario, Fort St. John, Edmonton
Work: 1946 to 1949
Guelph Ontario 1949- Mrs Crane's House with Sydney Craik
Goldie Avenue family moves down ?
Gilsons 1949 to 195?
Victoria Road 2?? then 57 Victoria Rd. Taylor 4 1206, 1952 to 1965
Work:
General Electric
Shell Cast Alloys
Sanitrium in Preston
General Electric
Unemployed
Sinterings
General Electric 196? to Retirement
Highway 24 Ospringe Ont. 1965 to 1988
Car Accident: 1972
Retired: 1977
Accident 1980?
Perth Ontario 1988 to 1995
My father spoke a little bit about his life in England. He spoke of finding crates of oranges on the beach and how they tasted sweet, if somewhat salty from having been in the salt water. He spoke of making a cart with wings on it and of riding it down "Ginny's Gap". He said that the wings actually gave it a little bit of lift before it crashed and he got quited battered up. He spoke of sailing boats on a pond in the park in Wallesey. He was 14 years old when he came to Canada in 1926.
I (Brian) first remember my father when one sunny morning he was leaving for work. We lived on Goldie Avenue in Guelph Ontario. This would most likely be in 1950 or 1951. I was sitting on the step with shorts and a tee shirt on and he was hurrying up the street where a car had just stopped to pick him up. The car was an old one, although I don't suppose that I new that at the time, all I remember was this dark coloured car with the straight high back, a car of the 1920's picking him up on the corner of Paisley Rd. and Goldie. The house that we lived in on Goldie Ave. was one of a sub-division of houses built after the war according to plans for houses that were built for war veterans. When we moved to Victoria Rd., I remember the maple trees lining the gravel road at the front of our houseand Francetto's farm across the road. The maple in the corner of the yard opposite to the drive way side of the house was the easiest one to climb, although my sister Beth climbed them all.
The first day we were in our house on Vistoria Rd. I remember asking my mother to make me a lunch, because I was going to explore the fields and apple orchard beside the house on the east side toward Haywards.. I remember setting out in the long grass and feeling a little afraid of not being able to see the house. Mom told me sometime later that she watched from the window as I sat down not a 20 feet into the field and ate luch, only to return to the house after a few minutes. It seems to me that during those early days at 57 Victoria Rd. North (Taylor 4-1206), my father was not well. For a time I remember him working at "Shell Cast Alloys" on Victoria Rd. South, on the left hand side over the train tracks past Stevenson St.. He got very thin in those days and had pneumonia very often. He was working on casting a part (canopy latch I believe) for the Avero Arrow, Canada's technologically superior fighter jet killed by Prime Minister Deifenbaker at the request of the Americans who subsequently hired most of the designers of the plane. The story was that the company took on the challenge of getting the contract and Dad designed the casting. When the first samples were presented to DeHavilland the person in charge of the project parts commended the company on the latch and offered to hire Dad after seeing it, but they had changed the design of the airplane and didn't need the part anymore. Dad was devastated and the company went bankrupt. His long hours had taken their toll on Dad and he begasn to get seriously ill. After some mnths in the Sanitorium he recovered. And eventually went back to work. Those years were very hard on my mother who had to rely on my sister Cathy's help, her own job as well as board payed by my sister Beth to get by. (more to come)
Dad's discharge from the Royal Canadian Air Force states: "This is to certify that L.A.C. R.257819, Walter Brodie Craik Served on Active Service with the RCAF from 7th July, 1943 and was honourably released and transfered to the Reserve, General Section, Class "E". on the 4th day of March, 1946. He was issued a War Service Badge (General Service Class) no. 533852. He was 33 years old at the time, 6 feet tall, fair complexion, blue eyes, brown hair."
He was issued a War Service Badge (General Service Class) no. 533852. At the time he was 33 years old, 6ft. tall, blue eyes and brown hair.
Dad was born in Wallesy and lived at 63 ? St. while he was there.
Dad lived on Birch st. in Timmins from when he was 14 years old until he got married in 1934 at the age of 22.
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