One Volunteer Worth Twenty Conscripts

Heroes Remember

One Volunteer Worth Twenty Conscripts

Transcript

And, and there was, we, in the course of a medical we naturally were stripped, and there was an old Veteran ahead of me, and, and our MO, John Crawford, he said to this Veteran ahead of me, he said, "Sit down here!" And the old man sat down, and Crawford said, "My you, you, you, you certainly comb your hair in a peculiar manner, don't you?" And so the Vet said, "No sir." "Well, we'll just see," and, and Crawford parted his hair and he said, "I see you've got a plate in your skull here. Where did you get that?" And the old man said, "Vimy Ridge." Well, so the, the MO, John Crawford, Captain Crawford, he said to Colonel, the Colonel at that time, Colonel Kay, he said, "How about this?" And Colonel Kay said, "One volunteer is worth twenty conscripts, sign him on." He, he told me confidentially, he said, "The only reason I joined because," he said, "it would be a free trip, a free trip to the old country, and I will see all my relatives." And he said, "I can't afford to pay for a trip but, but this should be a free trip to the old country." And, and we never saw England, we never saw Scotland, all his relatives are in Scotland. And that old Vet died in prison camp.

Description

Mr. Forsyth recalls a Veteran who had been wounded at Vimy in the First World War, signing up for the Second World War and passing the registration medical at roughly the same time as himself.

Thomas Smith Forsyth

Mr. Forsyth was born on a farm just outside of Pipestone, Manitoba, on April 26, 1910. He worked on the farm and attended school until grade 11, joining the army the following year when war was declared. After being accepted into the Winnipeg Grenadiers, Mr. Forsyth was briefly stationed in Jamaica guarding German POWs before being posted to Hong Kong. Captured in the Battle of Hong Kong, Mr. Forsyth was interned as a POW in North Point and Sham Shui Po prison camps, before being sent to Niigata Camp 5B in Japan as a slave labourer. After years of heavy labour, physical abuse, and terrible living conditions, Mr. Forsyth was liberated from 5B when Japan surrendered. He returned to his family in Manitoba soon thereafter.

Meta Data

Medium:: Video
Owner:: Veterans Affairs Canada
Duration:: 02:20
Person Interviewed:: Thomas Smith Forsyth
War, Conflict or Mission:: Canadian Armed Forces
Location/Theatre:: Canada
Branch:: Army
Units/Ship:: Winnipeg Grenadiers

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One Volunteer Worth Twenty Conscripts

Heroes Remember