Big Events in November!

November will see a number of events at/for the museum, so mark your calendar!

November 5th at 1:30 pm will feature renowned author, Ted Barris, presenting a talk related to his latest book, The Battle of Britain: Canadian Airmen in their Finest Hour. Barris is the author of many best selling books, including Behind the Glory (about the BCATP), Dam Busters, The Great Escape, and The Battle of the Atlantic. Copies of his new book will be available at the talk for purchase (also available at Indigo/Chapters and Amazon) and Ted will do some signing as well which will take place in the CATP Museum’s historic Canteen! This event has FREE admission, although we encourage a donation to the museum. Merchandise from our gift shop will also be available for sale.

Ted Barris
Ted Barris BIO_2024Download
BATTLE OF BRITAIN_BRIEFDownload

The second big event is a concert by the Mark Humphries Orchestra at the Westman Centennial Auditorium on Sunday, November 10 at 1:30 pm! Listen to music of the 1940’s! A big bonus – all proceeds go to the Museum! Come out to hear some great big band style music and support Brandon’s best kept secret at the same time! Tickets available soon at the WMCA!

Finally, come on out to honour our veterans on Remembrance Day, November 11 from 1 – 4 pm. We will be hosting a FREE open house (donations welcome!) This will be our last open day of the season, we will close for winter on November 12, re-opening in the spring. Spend some time reflecting at the Memorial Wall and check out our exhibits before our doors close for winter. Note that this open house is dependent on weather, the museum closes in winter out of an abundance of caution in case snow builds up on our roof. All donations will help us keep operating and move towards a permanent fix for the hangar.

CATPM at the Battle of Britain Ceremony

As many know, the Battle of Britain was a major battle fought in the second world war. It took place from July to October 1940 and was fought entirely in the air as Hitler’s forces attempted to clear the RAF from the skies as a prelude to invasion. Many Canadians fought in this battle, many died. To commemorate this important battle, September 15 of each year, the day that the Luftwaffe launched its heaviest assault on Britain. Each year, 17 Wing in Winnipeg conducts a ceremony, and the last several years, the CATP Museum’s aircraft have taken part performing a flypast for the ceremony (when weather permitted). This year, three of our aircraft took part, including the newly restored Fleet Finch, the Tiger Moth DH82c, and the Cornell. Our Stinson was also to take part, but the day it was to depart, weather kept it from leaving Brandon. It is an honour for us to take part in the ceremony commemorating those who fought in this battle, especially in vintage WWII training aircraft. Some photos of the aircraft and the event are below, thanks to one of our pilots, Peter Moodie.

The Chalkboard

A guest blog post by summer employee, Seraphina Gilbert. We asked Seraphina to write a few posts about her favourite displays, this is her second post – see also: The Barber’s Book

During the Second World War while everyone’s attention was directed to the fighting in Europe and Asia, children were working hard on the Canadian home front to do their part in the war effort. Children would do many different jobs to help raise money and collect savings stamps for the war. On top of going to school, children would often babysit, mow lawns and would collect and sell the tin foil out of cigarette packages as metals were scarce. Children would also collect the seeds from milkweed plants as these were used to stuff life jackets for the troops.

Children all over the country were aiding in the war effort but they weren’t always doing it alone; Sometimes, schools or classrooms would work together to raise money, and  Greenway School in Winnipeg, Manitoba was no exception. In 1943, all together the school raised $5,018 for the Victory Bond drive, after inflation that rounds up to $90,000 today (2024). The school children worked incredibly hard during the war, and they made sacrifices that no child should even have to imagine.

Greenway School kept track of the money they raised as a whole, but each classroom also kept track of their individual raised funds. We know this because of the chalkboard that was found during the demolition of Greenway School in 1997. Wayne Imrie was the contractor who was hired to take down the school. While his crews were going through the building, they found a chalkboard mural that was drawn in 1943, that was since boarded up. Imrie recognized the historical importance of the board, and immediately stopped his crews from working. He contacted the Western Aviation Museum to see if they would be able to take it, but they had no room. The Commonwealth Training Plan Museum, on the other hand, had the perfect space and reason to display it.

The Chalkboard is 6 by 20 feet and it’s almost a foot thick. During removal, the crew realized that the chalkboard weighed almost a ton. It took about fifteen people to remove, and it took a lot of patience and effort as the workers tried not to damage it. Under the careful guidance of Wayne Imrie and Harry Hayward – the CATP Museum’s archivist at the time – the chalkboard was transported from Winnipeg to the museum in Brandon; it was suspended high on the wall in the workshop. It’s a truly unique and timeless artifact but why did a chalk drawn mural get boarded up rather than erased?

the chalkboard

It’s quite simple really, someone had written “Please do not rub off” in large red letters, and that request has been respected for over half a century. The left side of the chalkboard shows Greenway School’s total raised funds, while the right side shows the classroom’s (room 12) contribution to the total; room 12 was used by Mrs. Christine Mitchell and her grade 7 class. In the middle of the mural there is a large letter ‘V’ with the Morse code symbols underneath, most likely standing for Victory. There is also a drawing of a yellow RAF Wellington bomber dropping bombs on a Nazi target. Each of the red bombs represents a thousand dollars raised for the Victory Bond drive.

After the chalkboard was safely secured, the museum began looking for and trying to contact students from the classroom. The first person they were able to contact was a man named Frank Scardina, who was 67 at the time. His first words when they told him was “Don’t tell me they found that picture, I drew that.”. Frank had apparently thought about the mural quite a few times during his life but had always assumed that it was long gone; his shock was apparent over the phone. Frank loved to draw airplanes as a kid, it was one of his passions, but he never dreamed of his art being put in a museum. He stated that “Somebody mentioned that they put it in a museum, and I said: “Oh no you can’t do that… It’s not King Tut’s tomb or anything”

Brandon Sun article about the chalkboard.

Although, no it might not be King Tut’s tomb, this Chalkboard is an incredibly important historical artifact that deserves to be displayed. The mural gives us insight into the lives of Canadian children during the Second World War. It can be inferred that these kinds of activities happened in almost every school as children helped with the cause. Most classrooms likely used their chalkboards to record too, as they didn’t have the technology we have today. After the war ended, these chalkboards were erased, and any other records were likely disposed of as there was no need for them anymore. Without proper documentation, it’s very difficult to tell what happened during the war, but finding the blackboard was like finding a missing puzzle piece.

The Chalkboard mural cannot be preserved in any way other than keeping it away from moisture and fingerprints. Eventually, this mural will fade away leaving only the dark slate behind. It is a piece of temporary history that once gone cannot be restored, but until then it is getting the spotlight it deserves. It is not only being used as a research aid but it’s being loved and enjoyed by the hundreds of guests who venture through the museum. The Commonwealth Air Training Plan Museum will proudly display the chalkboard for the rest of its life and we are so very honoured to be a part of  its rich history.

Written by Seraphina Gilbert

See Ya Later to our Summer Staff

We were very fortunate to have two excellent summer staff with us this year, Seraphina and Sandra.  They were a great team at welcoming visitors, doing tours, helping with interpretation signage and research, and providing excellent and much needed French interpretation!  We will miss them dearly, but the good news is we will continue to see them through the year as they both promise to return when they can.

All the best, Sandra and Seraphina, and a huge thank you from all of us here at the museum!

The Barber’s Book

A guest blog post by summer employee, Seraphina Gilbert. We asked Seraphina to write a few posts about her favourite displays, this is her first post.

During WWII, the Canadian home front was a surprisingly busy place as the country responsible for much of the munitions and vehicle manufacturing. Canada was also home to the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan, which was used to train RCAF, RAF, RAAF and RNZAF troops. Over 230 of these training sites were located across the country and once they were established the Canadian skies became filled with striking, yellow aircraft.

Canada and it’s BCATP became known as “The Aerodrome of Democracy” and it became one of the greatest strengths for the Allied forces. It allowed for people to train for all necessary jobs overseas and on the home front. Every person had a part to play and every job, no matter how seemingly minute or irrelevant, was important to the war effort. One such person was a man named Jack Taylor, and he was a barber.

Brandon, Manitoba was home to the #2 Manning Depot, one of the 7 locations that enlistees would go to. Enlistees would be examined by a medical officer as well as receive multiple vaccinations (often all in the same arm!) at these depots. This is also where they would do basic training and receive their kits, which was their uniforms and standard issue items. The Air Force also had strict regulations on the way troops could style their hair. Many troops got haircuts before arriving to the depot and were forced to get another one to be up to standard. One second aircraftsman even said “I had a haircut the day before I got here. And within two weeks I’ve had five!”. It was Mr. Jack Taylor who kept the barbershop running for thousands of haircuts.

Little biographical information has been found about John (Jack) Taylor, though we know he was born in Carmen in 1905 and that he married his first and only wife, Gilberta, in 1924. They also welcomed their daughter and only child, Lyle, in 1928. When the war started, Jack joined the RCAF and started working in the manning depot in his hometown, Brandon. He worked as the barbershop manager and he had three other men working under him, George Davis, Larry Emond and Walter Chandler. Aside from cutting hair, Jack did another amazing thing. Jack asked every person who came through his shop to sign a book with their name, rank, registration number, and where they’re from.

We’re unsure of why he did this, but utterly grateful that he did. He started collecting signatures early on in 1941, and by the end of the war he had collected over 22,000. The vast majority of these were signed by the end of 1942 as training began to slow down after that point. On the other hand, there are still many signatures that were done from 1943 and onwards. After looking through the signatures, people of over 32 different nationalities had signed the book. There are countries, included but not limited to Ireland, Jamaica, Czechoslovakia, Spain and South Africa. People from all over the world had ended up in Jack’s chair at one point or another.

The Barber’s Book isn’t a literal book but rather a large stack of scribblers. After the war, the book stayed with Jack and his family. Jack went on to open his own barbershop here in Brandon and it was located where Samson Engineering Inc is today, only a short walk from his place of residence. While he did this, his wife Gilberta was working as a teacher at Park School here in Brandon and their daughter worked as a nurse. It was likely that Lyle learned how to nurse during the war, but little biographical information has been found about her as well. Jack retired from work in 1968, and he and his wife moved away from Brandon sometime in the ‘70s. The Barber’s Book was donated by Jack in the ‘80s, shortly before his death.

The Barber’s Book has been apart of the Commonwealth Air Training Plan Museum’s collection for almost as long as the museum has existed. Everyday at least one person comes to the museum and flips through the pages, looking at the signatures of the past. People often have us search through (a digitized version) in order to find relative’s signatures. The Barber’s Book has been an incredibly useful aid for people’s general research, genealogy tracing as well as people who are just curious about their family’s history. Even children on field trips have gotten to see their great-grandfather’s signature in the book. It has brought people together in so many ways and has helped people piece together their own past. Jack Taylor’s collection of signatures shows that even one small action can make a huge impact.

Written by Seraphina Gilbert