In his presentation last evening to Lambton Branch of the OGS Second World War-Researching the Canadian Fallen Ken McKinlay made mention of a publication that is now a database — Canadian Army Overseas Honours and Awards Citation Details. Its existence was news to me. It has entries for those who survived as well as the fallen.
To test it I tried a name I've recently been researching in the First World War — Gilchrist.
Charles Whitney Gilchrist was awarded the OBE in July 1945. Here's the detail.
However, there's more to the story given in the Brown's Beat column in the Ottawa Citizen of 28 June 1996, shortly after Gilchrist's death.
In early 1945. some 90.000 battle-hardened troops, mainly Canadians, were quietly moved from Italy to the campaign in Holland. Deception was needed to keep German manpower committed to the Italian theatre. That was Gilchrist’sjob.
With hardly a Canadian left in Italy he labored away at the Maple Leaf for months, creating and publishing stories about the comings and goings of people who were no longer there.
Col. Strome Galloway says the success of Gilchrist’s invented news stories wasn’t fully appreciated until the end of the war. “Until we were identified in the Dutch campaign, the Germans thought we were still in Italy.’’
Gilchrist was given an Order of the British Empire, not just for lying, but for doing it well on a grand scale.
Charles Whitney Gilchrist is interred at Capital Memorial Garden in Ottawa.
Ken has posted the handout accompanying his presentation at
https://familytreeknots.blogspot.com/2020/11/second-world-war-researching-canadian.html
Thanks for the link :) I found an award notice that I needed. Also, thanks for the Brown's Beat nostaligia moment...I always enjoyed his columns.
ReplyDeleteAn incredible endeavour!! The things we never learned about our own history... Thanks for posting this, John.
ReplyDeleteThat's a marvelous story John. Thank you, and thanks to Ken! Cheers, BT
ReplyDeleteToo bad it's only Army. My uncle won a DFC for flying his Lancaster back to England although it was badly damaged. Saved all the crew. And like most genealogists, I clicked instantly on the link to explore the database before re-reading the heading, Army Honors and Awards!
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