"Back in your arms again"............ reunions in Belleville in the autumn of 1945

I am back in Belleville in the autumn of 1945 with the home coming of the Hastings and Prince Edward Regiment.

The photographs came into the collection from Mike Dufresne who lives in Kingston, Ontario and kindly allowed me to use them.

When I first came across them I mistakenly assumed that he had taken them which may well have added something like 30 years to his age and so an apology is in order.

Mike was quick to point out that “I want you to know I am not the photographer of these photos and I am informing you of this so that you will not credit me as the photographer as I am the owner only.”

Of all the images this is one of my favourites.

Countless photographers have captured that moment of reunion which more than anything marks the transition from soldier back to civilian, from fighter to father, husband or sweet heart.

And this one does it in an unsentimental matter of fact way.   Under the gaze of the officials who look back at the camera with detached expressions one couple embrace while in the foreground a father catches a few fond words with his daughter.

He is totally absorbed by the conversation with just a slight smile at the pleasure of the reunion, and as if to emphasise the moment his hands settle gently on both his daughter and his wife.

Like all good pictures you want to know more.

According to Mike, “the Reg’t arrived home to Belleville Ontario by train and then the same day moved on to the armories at Belleville.”

But what then happened to the returning soldiers and their families?  Did they return to the routines of a quiet Belleville, make good lives and help build the peace?

These are questions which a historian and indeed any one looking at such photographs should ask.

And in time maybe I will have some answers.

Only yesterday one of new facebook friends told me she came from Bellevile and that here her “older brother and sister have talked about the end of the war and the excitement it caused in town.”

So maybe just maybe as more of these pictures are seen again through the blog and the facebook site Vintage Belleville, Trenton & Quinte Region* something of the stories of the day the regiment came home and of the years afterwards will resurface.  I hope so.

Picture; from the collection of Mike Dufresne.

* Vintage Belleville, Trenton & Quinte Region https://www.facebook.com/pages/Vintage-Belleville-Trenton-Quinte-Region/395830067158776

Homecomings, 1945

I think these will be the last of the pictures from Belleville for a while.

Now I do have more from the collection of Mike Dufresne but these two perfectly tell the story of the return of the Hastings and Prince Edward  Regiment from its war in Europe.

The regiment left Canada for Britain soon after the war began and saw action in France, Italy and Holland and returned to Belleville Ontario in the autumn of 1945.

I have featured five of the photographs from the collection and each has its own story or perhaps stories, and while there are more pictures I think these pretty much make closure. 

And like all good photographs after you have taken in the image with these two you wonder what else there is.  Now if truth were known I don’t have a clue what else lies hidden.

For a start I don’t know who any of the people are and nor do I know what happened to them so we are left with just asking questions.

Of the four men one is in civilian clothes and yet he appears to share a bond with the other three.  

So are they comrades, and was he invalided out due to an injury?  

Which begs the question of whether the tiny lapel badge is significant?

The military ribbons on the other three testify to the action they have seen but all that is now in the past, and with all the fuss and noise of a homecoming with the town turned out to meet the regiment these four have sought each other out. 

I would like to know what interests them so much about the flag and the detail one of the soldiers is pointing to and for that matter what is being said.

Perhaps it is just a posed shot but there is something in the gaze of one of the four which leads me to think it is more than just a rehearsed photograph.

In the same way I am drawn to the other picture.  The couple stare in a relaxed way at the camera while around them men disembark from the train.

They seem perfectly at ease on that railway station and what I like about the picture is that you have a sense they have been caught in mid motion stopping just for a minue at the request of the photographer.  

And if it does not seem fanciful you half expect them to move off , thanking the photographer and mumbling something about having somehere to go.

There is much more that I could say about these two but none of it would be based on historical research, so I shall just leave them to their reunion on a pleasant sunny day sometime in 1945.

Pictures; courtesy of Mike Dufresne

It's the detail that draws you in, another Belleville picture from 1945

I keep coming back to this picture and like all good pictures it raises questions which as yet I do not have answers.

On the surface it is easy enough to see what is going on.

We are at Belleville railway station, Ontario in the autumn of 1945 and the Prince Edward Hastings Regiment have returned from the European war.

Of the two central figures, one is an officer who appears in many of the pictures while the other can be seen in a few of the photographs.  I would love to know what has made them laugh but that sadly is lost.

Beyond them there are other soldiers getting ready to disembark the train.  Some stare directly at the camera, while others seem more intent on getting on to the platform.

But what draws you in is the central figure of the railway employee.  He is one of two and the way they stand is out of kilter with the upbeat mood all around them.

Their heads are bowed and they stand apart from all that is going on.

Now I shall be careful and avoid any sweeping generalizations.

My knowledge of this period of Canadian history is almost nonexistent, which is an awful admission and one I want to address.

But I do have to ask why have they struck that pose?

There are of course many possible explanations, ranging from the shyness of the employees, to company policy about how to behave when passengers are disembarking from a company train, particularly when the press are present.  Or just maybe it is something less pleasant.

Either way my attention is drawn to this tiny little scene and I wonder at the social conventions of the period.

In much the same way as in the film of Doctor Zhivago where there is a scene where the young Zhivago is called to assist on a case of attempted suicide.  It is snowing hard and Zhivago and his professor go inside the house leaving the coachman to sit outside and wait.

Nothing you might think as odd.  But this is pre Revolutionary Russia, and Zhivago has just witnessed a brutal attack by the army on a peaceful street protest.  Added to that, the house call takes place against a backdrop of a social gathering of the wealthy.

The contrasts are all too obvious but I doubt that many pick up on the plight of the coachman who will sit for hours in the snow waiting for his employers.

There will be those I suppose who mutter “he’s going over the top and elevating a sixty second shot into something more than it is” which may be so.

And yet it is the tiny detail that often reveals a host of stories and puts the image into the bigger picture.  Well with this one we shall see.

In the meantime it is another of those unique records of the Prince Edward Hastings Regiment retuning home.

And there is no way that you can escape that sense of excietement on the faces of men who left for Europe in late 1939, saw action in France, Italy and Holland and were now back in Canada.

The collection is in the possession of Mike Dufresne who bought them in an auction and tells me they will be left to the regimental museum.

I can think of no fitting place for them to to end up and is a good reminder that all such images are part of oor collective history.

And it is worth mentioning also that Mike has already begun releasing them to the social network site,  Vintage Belleville, Trenton & Quinte Region.*

Now this I like not least because it means that people who live close by can see them, but total strangers from the other side of the world can also share this little bit of history.

All of which is fascinating, after all it is the stories of the "little people caught up in a big century" which bring the events of that period to life.

Picture; from the collection of Mike Dufresne

* https://www.facebook.com/pages/Vintage-Belleville-Trenton-Quinte-Region/395830067158776

With The Hastings and Prince Edward Regiment in Belleville, Ontario in 1945

Arriving Home © Mike Dufresne

Here are three of those images that pretty much speak for themselves.  

We are in Belleville in Ontario in the autumn of 1945 watching the home coming of The Hastings and Prince Edward  Regiment.

They had shipped out for Europe in the December of 1939, saw action in France in June 1940 and were part of the allied landings in Sicily and mainland Italy in 1943.  In the final months of the war they moved to North West Europe

© Mike Dufresne

Meanwhile back in Canada in June 1945, a second Battalion of the regiment was mobilized for service in the Pacific but with Japan’s surrender in the August the battalion was disbanded in the November.

Each photograph is a rich source of detail, from the informality of the disembarkation at the railway station to the formal march past.

So often the identities of the people in the pictures are lost but the second soldier in the parade was the Inetelligence Officer Farley Mowatt.

Pictures; by Mike Dufresne, posted on the facebook site, Vintage Belleville, Trenton & Quinte Region

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Vintage-Belleville-Trenton-Quinte-Region/395830067158776

© Mike Dufresne

Stories behind pictures, the Hastings and Prince Edward Regiment marches through Belleville in 1945

 © Mike Dufresne

I like this picture not least because it captures a confused moment when lots of things seem to be going on at the same time.

It is another one of those photographs of the Hastings and Prince Edward Regiment during the parade to mark its return from service in the European war.

The date is 1945 and we are in Belleville, Ontario.  The regiment had shipped out for Europe in the December of 1939, saw action in France in June 1940 and were part of the allied landings in Sicily and mainland Italy in 1943.  In the final months of the war they moved to North West Europe, and were part of the liberation of Holland.

Now I don’t have an exact date for the picture but judging by the leaves on the trees and the presence of so many top coats I guess it will be late autumn.

It is  the platform party with its mix of uniformed men, civic dignitaries and the large wooden figure of a Native American that you notice first.

But it is the little detail that draws you in. So there is the photographer running to get ahead of the troops, and the two young women looking in different directions at events unfolding in front of them.

And then there are the two boys with their bikes almost oblivious to what is going on around them, having their own private conversation while the crowds applaud, the officers salute and the soldiers march past.

It is the sort of picture I would have liked to have taken, and one where you can go off and ponder on each of the tiny scenes.

Did the photographer get the picture he wanted, and what exactly was it that caught the attention of the young woman applauding?  After all she is pretty much alone in looking back while most of the crowd are preoccupied with the line of troops parading past.

And what is it that those boys are talking about?

All the time the soldiers are marching past and some at least of the crowd may have been reflecting on that previous war which took Canadian servicemen to the Western Front.

None of this is of course historically in order.

Speculating without hard evidence is not how history should be told, but on the other hand it is exactly what makes a good picture.

So I shall leave it at that, on a day when the Prince Edward Hastings Regiment came home, and the people of Belleview could celebrate the first autumn of peace in six years.

Picture; Mike Dufresne, posted on the facebook site, Vintage Belleville, Trenton & Quinte Region
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Vintage-Belleville-Trenton-Quinte-Region/395830067158776