Canadian troops were at the forefront during momentous events in 1944. Two British Columbia units, the Westminster Regiment (Motor), and the 9th Canadian Armoured Regiment (British Columbia Dragoons), of the 5th Canadian Armoured Division thrust through the breach in...
To mark Vimy Ridge Day let us remember three Okanagan soldiers that died at Vimy Ridge in France. This battle on April 9, 1917, became a cornerstone of Canadian identity after the First World War ended in 1919. That identity was paid for in blood, sweat, and scars by...
February 20, 1959, was the day that the Diefenbaker Conservative government cancelled the AVRO Arrow aircraft program. Much ink has been spent discussing the psychological, economic, and technological impact, including the...
Sometimes, when we travel somewhere, we encounter something remarkably close to our interests that is a fantastic surprise discovery. Such happened to a tourist to Kelowna wishing to explore the Okanagan Military Museum years ago. One day, a gentleman...
Jeannie’s cape is like an autograph book!
Imagine how many fascinating people you have met this year alone. What tokens of those encounters do you still have, apart from your memories? This collection of cloth badges from the Second World War reads like an autograph book. Badges, removed from the uniforms of the many British, Canadian and other allied forces men, were given to Nursing Orderly Jean “Jeannie” Daisy Amos. She sewed them inside her nursing cape [Fig. 1] while working at the 106 (British) General Hospital from September 1941 to December 1946 in Peebles, Scotland, Bayeux, France and Antwerp, Belgium. She wore the British Red Cross Society Voluntary Aid Detachment badge like this one on her uniform. [Fig. 2]
August 2023 marks the 20th anniversary of the Okanagan Mountain Fire near Kelowna. At the time, many large fires in British Columbia were raging, which overwhelmed the provincial forestry services and precipitated a request for “aid to civil power” to the federal...