William John (Jack) Armstrong

My father was a quiet gentle person, a devoted husband and father his favourite past time was enjoying a good read. 

Jack was born in Cobalt, Ontario on October 2nd 1917.  The son of Clifford and Hazel (McGuire) Armstrong, (click here for a history of the Armstrongs) he was the oldest of seven children. (Bert, Arnold, Clayton, Muriel, Hazel and Jean).   On October 4, 1922 the family moved to Swastika, Ontario.  This was the same day that the Haileybury fire broke out, destroying over 6,000 homes in the Cobalt area.  Their move probably saved them from losing everything.

Clifford worked at a haulage business, using horses and eventually trucks.  They hauled lumber, made coal and wood deliveries and did snowplowing.  The family was in Swastika for a few years then moved to Kirkland Lake.  Jack attended the local high school in Kirkland Lake, but left at age 16 to work with his father.  A staunch Catholic, Jack was a member of the Knight of Columbus and was very active in the Boy Scouts at Holy Name Parish in Kirkland Lake.  Over the next few years he worked mainly as a truck driver for various firms in Kirkland Lake and spent at least three years as a labourer at the Toburn gold mine.

In March 1941, Jack joined the local militia regiment (Algonquin Regiment), but was declared unfit for active duty by the regiment's medical officer who was also his family physician.  This doctor had treated Jack for a childhood illness that he thought would affect Jack's performance.  In July of 1941, Jack left Kirkland Lake to enlist in the Canadian Army at Niagara-On-The-Lake.  He received training in Debert, Nova Scotia and Sussex, New Brunswick.  March to July 1942 he was assigned to Force W, which was the Canadian Army force in Newfoundland. He helped man one of two artillery pieces at Cape Spear, the easternmost point of North America.  These guns were to help protect shipping entering or leaving St. John's harbour from U-Boats.

On the 23rd of September 1942, Jack sailed for the UK. Arriving in Scotland on October 7th having spent his 25th birthday at sea.   He spent the next few months as a storekeeper with the 3rd Canadian Armoured Brigade.  February 1943 saw him posted the the 2nd Light Anti-Aircraft Regiment (1st Canadian Infantry Division) as a gunner  where he was to spent most of the rest of his enlistment.

Jack's Army ID

Undated picture, probably 1941

The 2nd LAA was part of Operation Husky, the invasion of Sicily on July 10, 1943.   A few days after the invasion, Jack was slightly wounded in a German mortar attack.  Although the wound was not serious, he was to carry German shrapnel in the his right shoulder for the rest of his life.  Jack fought as an Anti-Aircraft gunner and on occasion as infantry throughout the Italian campaign.  One of his highlights was seeing the Pope after the liberation of Rome.  Jack had not seen any of his family since Christmas 1941, but he managed to meet up with Bert on a bridge in Rome.

Pencil drawing dated: Rome 1945

In March of 1945, the Canadian forces in Italy were transferred to Northern Europe to join up with the 1st Canadian Army.  Jack spent most of the remainder of the war in Holland and Germany.  Towards the end of the war, his youngest brother Clayton arrived in Holland and they were able to spend some time together.  Clayton volunteered to fight the Japanese, so he was sent back to Canada.  He was given leave and discharged when the Japanese surrendered, months before Jack got home.  

This undated photo was probably taken in Holland in 1945.  Jack maybe the fifth one from the left in the back row, sitting in the gunners seat of the Bofors.

He sailed from the UK on September 25th 1945 and landed in Halifax on October 3rd one day after his 28th birthday.  He was granted home leave and finally discharged on November 16th. He returned to Kirkland Lake and got a job with a mining contractor as a miner.

Jack started dating Margaret (Marg) MacDougall in the summer of 1946 and they were married on February 3, 1947.   Marg would not marry him unless he got work outside the mines. (Her father suffered from tuberculosis and silicosis that he had contacted in the mines and her Uncle had been blinded in a mining accident.)  He got a job at the local A&P stocking shelves and then at the local post office as a clerk.  Over the next few years, they had four children.

Murray  Dec 29, 1947 

Kathy  Feb. 11, 1949

Jim    Jan. 10, 1951 

Rob   Oct. 10, 1952

Jack was active in the Knights of Columbus and very involved with the Boy Scouts as a leader.  He was also a member of the Kirkland Lake branch of the Royal Canadian Legion.  He eventually got a job at a mining supply company.  In 1957 he was laid off during a depression in the mining industry when many of the mines in the Kirkland Lake area closed.

Borrowing a car from his sister in law, Jack set out across Ontario on a job search.  He ended up in Elliot Lake, where he obtained a job on April 4, 1957 as a warehouseman at Consolidated Denison (later Denison) Mines. In August of that year, they purchased one of the first houses built in the new town of Elliot Lake.  They moved in to a sea of mud, gravel and construction equipment.  The new house featured a swamp in the back yard, but it was situated just across the street from Elliot Lake itself.

132 Spruce Ave. September 1957 

Elliot Lake from the Spruce Beach

132 Spruce Ave. 2002

The years in Elliot Lake were good ones, the children went to Our Lady of Fatima school and Elliot Lake Secondary School.  Jack remained active in the Knights of Columbus, the Denison Recreation Association and the Curling Club.  Marg worked at the Medical Centre (which was in the house next door) and later at Denison.  Jack worked in the warehouse and later in the purchasing department. Over the years they were able to travel much of Canada and the US, and take trips to Hawaii and the UK. In 1971 he had two heart attacks from which he recovered.  He retired from Denison on October 29, 1982 after more than 25 years.

                                                               Jack on his 20th anniversary at Denison 1977

December 1983 saw Jack and Marg move into a new house in Pickering, Ontario. This brought them closer to family who lived in the Toronto area.  Their 40th wedding anniversary in 1987 was attended by 61 guests and relatives who watched them renew their wedding vows.  On August 27th, 1987, Marg passed away due to complications from leukemia. After Marg's death, Jack did some traveling, driving out to Alberta to visit Rob and his wife Wendy and going to Arizona where Jim and Jo-Ann and their family live.  In 1990, Jack moved to London, Ontario to be close to Murray and his wife Shirley and Kathy and her husband Peter and their children.  On September 14th, 1991, Jack died from congestive heart failure.

Web Site: www.murrayarmstrong.com