On the Train to Vancouver Island
Some Canadian members of Combined Operations who completed their two years of service ('Hostilities Only' or HO) by the end of 1943 were allowed to return home, where they encountered the opportunity to volunteer for more duties, this time related to training new recruits in seamanship and gunnery skills at Givenchy III, a Combined Operations training camp on The Spit, near the towns of Comox and Courtenay on Vancouver Island.
Photo: This photo was taken in late December, 1943 or early January, 1944 as Canadian members of Combined Operations take a smoke break in Hornepayne, Ontario, on their way to Vancouver, BC. From left to right: Don Linder, Chuck Rose, Buryl McIntyre (behind), Joe Watson, Don Westbrook. The photo was likely taken by my father, Doug Harrison. The shell of the train station remains, and modern trains still stop in Hornepayne on their journey west and back.
Little is written about Givenchy III, closed shortly after the war ended, but the site remains in the hands of the Dept. of National Defence and is called HMCS Quadra, and serves as a site for training Sea Cadets.
Books with some mention of Givenchy III:
"Dad, Well Done": The Naval Memoirs of Leading Seaman Coxswain Gordon Douglas Harrison by Gordon A. Harrison, 2012
The Naval Service of Canada: Its Official History (Volume 2) by G. N. Tucker, 1952
(Links to above books will be provided in the future)
Links to HMCS Quadra:
Cadet Summer Training Centre - Comox, BC
HMCS Quadra Alumni Association
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