From the Warbrides Newslist on Rootsweb - posted there by:

Date: Fri, 29 Feb 2008 10:07:55 -0800 (PST)
From: "Michele, host of AWBE" <uswarbrides@yahoo.com>
Subject: [WARBRIDES] Doris Hiatt Pedwell, Canadian WB
To: WarBrides List <warbrides-l@rootsweb.com>
Michele, Vice President of the WWII War Brides Association
Host of the American War Bride Experience at
http://www.geocities.com/us_warbrides/
(Belgian War Baby - USS Brazil)

From: http://www.owensoundsuntimes.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=920713

Museums want every day to be Remembrance Day; Honouring Our Local Veterans exhibit aims to keep sacrifices in public eye

Posted By JONATHON JACKSON

When asked to describe what she did during the Second World War, Doris Pedwell likes to say she is able to "tick all the boxes."

She is a survivor of the Blitz, a war bride and a veteran in her own right. And it's as a veteran that she has been honoured by the Billy Bishop Home and Museum.

Every year the museum selects a number of local residents for its annual Honouring Our Local Veterans exhibit. Pedwell, a native of Birmingham, England, who has lived in Owen Sound since shortly after the end of the Second World War, was one of the 10 most recent honourees.

She and the others were first commemorated last October in a public ceremony at the Owen Sound Legion. They were honoured again at a smaller, more intimate, gathering Wednesday at the Marine & Rail Museum, presented with the plaques that have been showcased since last fall at the Bishop museum.

"I didn't know it was going to be all this," Pedwell said after Wednesday's ceremony, explaining she had initially agreed to be interviewed for a locally produced documentary. "I thought that would be the end of it."
Eventually she was asked to agree to have her name put forward for consideration in the museum's exhibit.

"I was sort of roped into it, you might say," she said chuckling.

"I wouldn't have volunteered for it."

Pedwell, whose maiden name is Hiatt, endured the Blitz during her teenage years in Birmingham, then enlisted the day after her 18th birthday in 1943.
She served with the Royal Army Service Corps as a driver.

"I don't like being too cooped up, so I didn't want to be in an office. I certainly didn't want to be in a cookhouse. I didn't know how to drive, so I decided to take the course on driving," she said, recalling that she learned how to double-clutch in three-tonne trucks that had been placed on blocks.

"I drove all kinds of vehicles and then I became a staff driver, so I was on the road all the time, which I enjoyed."

She met Douglas Pedwell, a native of the Bruce Peninsula, while volunteering at a canteen. They married in September 1945 and she joined him in Canada the following July. They have lived in Owen Sound ever since.
Pedwell, the mother of two sons, is more apt to discuss her war experiences than is her husband. One thing she makes clear, though, is that she never considered a full-time career in the military.

"I enjoyed my time in the forces. It was my university education, you might say," she said laughing again. "But I'm not very good at obeying things I think are stupid in the first place."

Also honoured Wednesday were William (Bill) Corbett, an army sergeant in the Second World War, J.P. (Jock) Fleming, an army lieutenant during the war, Clifford Iles, another army sergeant during the war, Barry Jackson, an army private in the Korean War and later a warrant officer in the militia, Gordon Jackson, an air mechanic/ordnance in the navy during the Second World War, Thomas McClelland, a navy electrical lieutenant in the war, John Newton, an RCAF warrant officer during the war and later a flying officer, William Avery Tiner, who was with the army and the navy during the Second World War and with the army again during and after the Korean War, and Clarence (Clancy) Wark, an officers steward in the navy during the war.

Museums manager Mary Smith said the whole point of Honouring Our Local
Veterans and similar endeavours is to commemorate those who served on a year-round basis, rather than just on Remembrance Day, and to encourage the community to do the same.

"We are showing that we want to pass the torch on, so we remember," she said."


I thought I would share one of the stories from the list since it tells another type of story not often on this forum.

Michelle

PS The moderators can let me know if it was okay to insert the entire story since it is credited with the source, or if I should have only included the link to the original story.