Lottie remembersLottie remembersBy STEPHAN BURNETT by the Weyburn Review
When Charlotte "Lottie" Ireland thinks of war times, they're not happy memories.
All the glamour and valour of war times depicted in books and movies don't paint quite the right picture.
"A lot of my memories are sad ones because a lot of our friends were killed over there, friends from Broadview. It's not a happy memory," says Lottie.
Lottie served with the navy between 1941 and 1943 passing six weeks of basic training in Guelph, Ont. and serving in Ottawa and later at a secret service station just northeast of Ottawa in Glouchester, Ont.
Lottie doesn't talk very much about the secret service station she worked with and she adds she wasn't privy to any secret service documents although she adds, her female officers may have had some knowledge of issues surrounding national security.
"I didn't like Ottawa, you had to take a street car wherever you went and it's a big place. But I like Weyburn, I can get around here, and I'm a Legion member on top of it all," she says.
While serving with the navy Lottie was a canteen worker and later worked as an officer steward, taking care of the female officers' clothes and working in the dining room.
Lottie says the navy was more strict than the army.
She recalls her officers' rationale was that in the army you could be three minutes late and no one would be any worse off, but in the navy, if you were three minutes late, you'd miss the boat. Lottie also remembers the experience of being CB'ed with her friends on a few occasions - CB'ed meaning being confined to barracks if you were late.
While referring to herself and her sister Verla Middleton, Lottie says: "Us girls never made it, we got as far as the east coast and the west coast."
In late 1942, Lottie's mother, Margaret Jane Middleton, wrote a compassionate letter telling how she was ill and required the assistance of her daughter to get along.
After the letter was received, Lottie was honourably discharged in order to take care of her mom. "Then the war ended. It was a good experience, it might be strict but it didn't hurt anybody," she says.
Besides her own war experience Lottie's husband, Allan Donald Ireland ,was also in the war for five years. Allan, also known as "Scottie," served in the war as a lance bombardier.
After asking Lottie how her husband could have been given a lance bombardier's designation while serving in the army, it was decided to refer the issue to the Royal Canadian Legion. Later, Jess Balkwill, responding on behalf of the legion explained. In the artillery, a lance bombardier rank was similar to the rank of lance corporal in other divisions of the war effort.
Even though Scottie served for five years during World War II, Lottie says her husband never spoke too much about the war - as is evident, she agreed, with most veterans who have seen the worst of action.
"He'd hardly mention a word of it, he wouldn't talk about it. He just had it up to here (with the war) and he never held a conversation about it I guess there was nothing to write home about, being over there in the trenches," says Lottie.
Lottie does however, share some stories concerning two of her brothers.
Lottie had two brothers in the war, Hollis "Hollie" Middleton, and James Daniel "Jim" Middleton.
"Hollie had quite an experience. He was in a ship and it was hit and he was drug out of the water, all the boys were drug out of the water, but he was in that troop. But with Jim, I don't think he saw too much action; he left on the troop train and by the time he got to Europe he had developed spinal meningitis.
"We're awful darn lucky all our boys (in the Middleton and Ireland families) came back alive all healthy. Some came back all crippled up and it wasn't pleasant, I'll tell you."
This year, the Royal Canadian Legion has asked Lottie to lay a wreath on behalf of all war mothers.
"I feel kind of proud to be able to do it, it's in memory of the boys who have fallen and it's an honour."
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