Remembrance Day Service

Keith was asked a few months back to attend a memorial service at Winkleigh Airfield today to lay a Canadian wreath. Winkleigh is about 10 minutes from Dale & Lauren's so it was perfect. The memorial was held today as it is a very small one (about 30 people) so everyone could still go to the main services tomorrow. We didn't know until we arrived that Winkleigh is the birthplace of 406 Squadron in Shearwater. It was formed during WWII when many Canadians were based at Winkleigh.

406 is the training squadron at Shearwater that all aircrew eventually pass through before being qualified navigators and pilots. In saying that, it meant Keith was quite the celebrity again because he of course went through 406 during his training. The people of Winkleigh and the British servicemen at the time were quite appreciative that Keith attended and had never ending stories to tell.

As part of the service he was presented with the honor roll of the men killed (all Canadians, and 1 Polish) and a picture of the monument that was erected at Winkleigh in 1995. After the service we were invited for tea/coffee and cakes. The people were extremely inviting and took very god care of us. Keith was also well photographed! His picture ended up in the paper and can be seen at:



I'm so proud! Ron Fletcher, the man in charge of the service also sent us the newspaper article, a picture taken of Keith & I, and a disk of all the pictures taken that day. I have no doubt we'll be back there next year. It such an experience to meet the vets and hear their stories.

We arrived back at Dale & Lauren's just after lunch and relaxed for the rest of the day. Lauren was sick throughout the night with some kind of bug so she needed to lay low to recover.