Kristen Jeanveau
Assortment of supplies from the file of Harry George Dickson R/18077. Courtesy of the Ley and Lois Smith Warfare Reminiscence, and Tradition Analysis Assortment, Western College.
For the final two years, I’ve been a Graduate Instructing Assistant for Historical past 1810: Wars that Modified the World at Western College. For a lot of college students, the world wars are a distant expertise, lengthy out of residing reminiscence. This presents a problem for a first-year survey course: how ought to the wars be introduced to steadiness the broad implications of the battle with microhistory case-studies that supply a deeper have a look at particular lived experiences?[1] I firmly consider the aim of a historical past course is to not instill rote memorization of dates and names. As an educator, I’m extra involved in listening to what questions the scholars will increase with the content material that we current. My aim within the classroom is to foster a way of curiosity concerning the World Wars and have interaction with the scholars collaboratively to develop our understanding of this contested previous, and I attempt to obtain this by way of frequent use of fabric tradition research.
The Historical past Division at Western College is fortunate to carry the Ley and Lois Smith Warfare, Reminiscence, and Tradition Analysis Assortment and Wartime Canada archives, maintained by my supervisor, Dr. Jonathan Vance. With this entry, I make common use of newspapers, photographs, maps, medals, sheet music, navy gear, postcards, and letters from their holdings within the classroom. I’ve noticed college students who had been hesitant to contribute to straightforward tutorial discussions develop into engaged once they deal with surgical implements from our medical artefact assortment, or perform as detectives researching the authors of postcards from the First World Warfare. Likewise, multiple pupil has shared the story of their relative’s navy service whereas inspecting medals from the Second World Warfare and asking if they may take a photograph for his or her household as they give the impression of being “identical to those my nice grandfather had.”
During the last three years, I’ve introduced a fabric tradition workshop titled “Letters in wartime: the Lifetime of Harry G. Dickson Jr. RCAF” to over 200 college students. I present college students with a sequence of letters and private results from Harry George Dickson Jr., a nineteen-year-old man who attended South Collegiate Excessive Faculty in London, Ontario and enlisted within the Royal Canadian Air Power (RCAF) shortly after commencement in 1939. As a part of the workshop, the scholars comply with Harry’s journey from an Ontario coaching camp within the spring of 1940, throughout the Atlantic to England, then lastly to the skies over Germany in 1941.They discover his private results – photographs, a treasured watch, and the medals he accrued. The scholars share the content material of their letters in pairs and, within the latter half of the session, we collaboratively assemble a biography of Harry.
Harry George Dickson Jr. RCAF. Courtesy of the Ley and Lois Smith Warfare Reminiscence, and Tradition Analysis Assortment, Western College.
Harry’s story is emblematic of many English Canadians who enlisted through the Second World Warfare. Harry was born in London Ontario on 7 Nov 1920 and was the oldest of 4 kids born to his mother and father Jean and Harry Sr. His father was a chaplain within the First World Warfare, and whereas our archive holds a number of of his letters from that battle, Harry by no means mentioned whether or not his father’s service influenced his personal choice to enlist. A reference letter from Harry’s principal at London South Collegiate Institute signifies he accomplished programs in English, Canadian historical past, Algebra, and Physics; whereas additionally noting he failed Historic Historical past, Geometry, Chemistry and French. Regardless of his spotty tutorial report, his principal believed that his training coupled with Harry’s “in depth profession in athletics” (on this case, rugby) gave him the equal expertise of a junior matriculation.[2] Harry enlisted with the RCAF on 14 September 1939, and commenced writing his letters within the spring of 1940 whereas coaching at Camp Borden.
Letter to Jean Dickson 15 Might 1941. File of Harry George Dickson R/18077. Courtesy of the Ley and Lois Smith Warfare Reminiscence, and Tradition Analysis Assortment, Western College.
Throughout the workshop, I present typewritten copies of the letters with some primary annotations and stress the significance of dealing with the letters themselves by trying on the handwritten pages and envelopes. As valuable as these letters could also be as historic artefacts, additionally they have to be put into context as a report of the every day lifetime of Harry’s household. The physicality of the letters affords a window into the lives of Harry and his household: they’re stained, used to jot down grocery lists, or adorned with rapidly scrawled notes on the again. For instance, a letter written by Jean Jr. to her mom indicated she was out along with her pal Dorothy, could be again for dinner, and—no—the mailman had not introduced new letters from Harry but.[3] The letters and artifacts permit the scholars to make deep insights in unintended methods. One pupil confidently asserted, with out seeing Harry’s service file, that he was a “scrawny man” – he figured this out by making an attempt on Harry’s watch and noticing what number of hyperlinks had been eliminated. Paired with Harry’s fixed requests for chocolate, cigarettes, and cash, an statement of that sort leads us to a dialogue of wartime rationing, conceptions of mid-century physique picture, masculinity, and a bunch of different instructions. One other pupil related a “Mr. Freeman” referenced in a single letter to the photograph caption of his highschool rugby crew that I displayed; he was Harry’s coach, and that was a element that escaped my discover.[4]
Photograph of Harry’s squadron c. 1941. File of Harry George Dickson R/18077. Courtesy of the Ley and Lois Smith Warfare Reminiscence, and Tradition Analysis Assortment, Western College.
Harry’s preliminary letters alternate between boredom whereas in flight coaching faculty to reflections on his contributions to the battle effort, remarking: “They’re actually giving us necessary materials now & it makes me really feel very proud to know that at the least I’m actually doing one thing for my nation & understanding they’re relying on me to uphold what they’re instructing me.”[5] Harry had the identical ordinary gripes and complaints that many younger adults relate to even now: fear over passing his exams, working in need of spending cash, or making certain that the woman he was involved in again residence obtained a dashing photograph of him beaming together with his crewmates in entrance of a bomber.[6] Regardless of some preliminary setbacks in his morse code testing consequence, Harry did move his exams and by 3 January 1941 was reporting to his mom that he had spent a wild New Yr’s Eve in Glasgow dancing all evening earlier than heading all the way down to London. Whereas there he knowledgeable her concerning the ‘actual’ experiences of the Blitz: “We’re nonetheless making an attempt to get used to the black-outs however that can are available time. Have been to London a number of instances & nonetheless a grand place – don’t consider all of the newspapers and their accounts of the horrible injury – all exaggerated!!!”[7]
By Might 1941, Harry considers himself a seasoned veteran after 5 months of lively service:
“We’re making up for the injury the Jerry are doing in London and Liverpool & I solely want I may inform you of among the experiences to date. I’m getting (that’s the complete crew) to be ‘vets’ now on this job. (Tons) of recent crews coming into the station sort of look at us for recommendation and ask us query after query as to the issues to look out for and so forth. Makes one really feel moderately necessary at instances. It doesn’t appear so way back that we had been asking the identical questions.”[8]
A letter from June 1941 recounts his depart in Scotland the place he went rabbit looking with crewmate George Henson. Harry expressed remorse, however not shock, that they had been unable to search out the Loch Ness monster. Because the letters progress, the fact of the battle intrudes into the content material, and Harry lapses into sobering accounts of his experiences. Shortly after his Scotland journey, he shares that 5 of his “pals from Jarvis and Hamilton” crashed on their approach again to the bottom and their funeral was earlier that day. He displays: “I hadn’t meant to inform you about this however I do know you received’t join it with something that may occur to me. It’s simply the breaks of the sport Mother & they’d a nasty break that’s all.”[9] This admission, together with Harry’s observations on London, present the scholars a possibility to contemplate not solely what authorities censorship was imposed on his letters for safety causes, however what kind of self-censorship Harry was using to handle each his personal emotional reactions and people of his mom.
Harry’s final letter despatched 10 Aug 1941. Courtesy of the Ley and Lois Smith Warfare Reminiscence, and Tradition Analysis Assortment, Western College.
The penultimate pair of scholars are given a letter with a small notation in pink pen on the entrance of the envelope: “Junior’s final letter.” Collectively they uncover that on 13 Aug 1941, Harry’s airplane was shot down over Germany whereas on a bombing mission. A set of telegrams, newspaper clippings, and letters from the YMCA Auxiliary over the next three months narrate the preliminary hope that had survived and was a POW. The final pair of scholars receives a sequence of letters from Harry’s household and paperwork from the Commonwealth Warfare Graves Fee. Over the course of seven years from 1942 to 1949, Harry’s mom desperately seeks closure and the right burial of her son after he’s confirmed useless. She makes connections with the Canadian mother and father of her son’s crewmate George Henson who additionally died and his distant Scottish family members as nicely. In a letter to Jean, George’s nice aunt recollects Harry as a well mannered younger man that visited in the summertime of 1941, and that he and George had been inordinately happy with their rabbit-hunting outcomes after a number of rounds of golf. Simply as Harry’s letters present how he communicated the emotional complexities of the battle, Jean’s letters depict a girl making worldwide connections to barter her personal grief.
Telegram to Jean Dickson concerning her lacking son Harry. Courtesy of the Ley and Lois Smith Warfare Reminiscence, and Tradition Analysis Assortment, Western College.
Lastly, in 1949, the Commonwealth Warfare Graves Fee confirms they recognized Harry’s stays and relocated him to Hanover Warfare Cemetery. His mother and father selected a preferred epitaph from the First World Warfare: “On the happening of the solar, and within the morning, we are going to keep in mind him.”[10] In conducting this workshop, the previous turns into current for the scholars. It’s a end result of the abilities they’re constructing comparable to looking for navy data, discovering the context for content material within the wartime correspondence, or making observations concerning the bodily state of the artefacts and what it may inform us concerning the sender or recipient. My hope is that they set up private empathy with the previous and understand that, regardless of residing 85 years in the past, Harry’s shared experiences resonate with their lives. I additionally need that empathy to be crucial, nevertheless, and keep away from overtly lionizing Harry as a topic, as that may be a straightforward lure to fall into when conducting such a analysis. As distinctive as Harry’s experiences could appear to them, a fast have a look at the South Collegiate Institute yearbook for 1946 shows a complete of 9 hundred college students or alumni who enlisted, and sixty that ‘paid the last word worth.’ This realization is why I emphasize microhistory as a invaluable software in a survey course: college students develop an intimate familiarity with one soldier however hopefully understand Harry’s experiences could be extrapolated to a clearer understanding of the battle.
Kristen Jeanveau is a PhD pupil at Western College. Their analysis focuses on British neighborhood press within the Second World Warfare, significantly in London Underground shelters through the Blitz.
All Pictures by Kristen Jeanveau from the file of Harry George Dickson R/18077. Courtesy of the Ley and Lois Smith Warfare Reminiscence, and Tradition Analysis Assortment, Western College.
Hyperlinks:
Commonwealth Warfare Graves Fee – Harry George Dickson
Library and Archives Canada – Harry George Dickson Jr.
Wartime Canada
Ley and Lois Smith Warfare Reminiscence and Standard Tradition Archive
[1] Strictly talking, the educational outcomes of the course as developed by my supervisor Dr. Jonathan F. Vance state that “college students will acquire an appreciation of the elemental function of battle in shaping historical past and society” whereas additionally creating “a way of how one can spot a extremely well-made sandwich.” When you want an entertaining strategy to gauge if they’ve learn the syllabus, that is it.
[2] Letter from J.S.H Graham 17 November 1939. File of Harry George Dickson R/18077. Courtesy of the Ley and Lois Smith Warfare Reminiscence, and Tradition Analysis Assortment, Western College.
[3] A number of college students have made the connection that Harry requested the “finest snap” of him in his uniform be despatched to “D.O.” Might it’s that he was candy on his sister’s pal Dorothy?
[4] Letter to Jean Dickson from Harry G. Dickson Jr. 26 March 1941.
[5] Letter to Jean Dickson from Harry G. Dickson Jr. 3 September 1940.
[6] Which in some way, in opposition to all odds, seems to have landed in a discipline and sidled as much as two younger Land Military Ladies milking a cow. Totally a coincidence, I’m certain.
[7] Letter to Jean Dickson from Harry G. Dickson Jr. 03 January 1941.
[8] Letter to Jean Dickson from Harry G. Dickson Jr. 15 Might 1941.
[9] Letter to Jean Dickson from Harry G. Dickson Jr. 06 June 1941.
[10] Commonwealth Warfare Graves Fee. https://www.cwgc.org/find-records/find-war-dead/casualty-details/2198554/harry-george-dickson/
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