Harry Greenwood is a man of many parts – husband, father, active in his community.
His service includes chartering the first seniors centre and starting the Elder College for Capilano College at Squamish. He has volunteered with the Harmony Arts Festival “for about 18 years,” he calculates, West Vancouver Memorial Library and the West Vancouver branch of the Royal Canadian Legion. He practises tai chi, knows his way around a kitchen and is a spellbinding storyteller who can quote Cicero to make a point. For these reasons, and others too numerous to record here,
Harry Greenwood was named Citizen of the Year by the West Vancouver Chamber of Commerce. At the ceremony, Harry dedicated his award to all the volunteers who serve our community.
Adding to his activities, at just over 91 and one half years of age, Harry is writing his memoirs. He works to keep his memory tuned up.
“I test myself with the names of my classmates at school in Glasgow, and where they sat. We were 40 to a class back then, you know.”
As Remembrance Day approaches, Harry recalls the comrades he served with and all those lost during the Second World War, including boys from his school. He remembers enlisting in the Royal Navy on the strength of two years training in Morse code and visual signalling – semaphore – with the Sea Cadets. He was 17 and the navy was his first choice. “Sure, my grandfather was a sea captain on the ocean liners. As boys, my cousins and I sailed with him on his ketch to Norway and to Iceland. From the north of Scotland, they’re not far.”
As a signalman aboard Deep Sea Rescue Tugs, Harry saw action wherever his vessel was called to serve: on convoys during the Battle of the Atlantic and in the Mediterranean, at Normandy on D-Day. He completed his service with the Royal Navy in southeast Asia in 1946 at the age of 21.
After four years at home in Glasgow, Harry crossed the Atlantic again, intending to make his way in Canada. During the war, the convoys Harry travelled with could take up to two weeks to make the crossing, travelling at the pace of the slowest vessel. Harry’s crossing as a civilian was mercifully short, as he was seasick the entire voyage.
From Montreal, it was on to Toronto and Hamilton, where he settled into work, marriage, family life and community service. He volunteered with the United Way back when the organization was known as the Red Feather, served on the Board of Governors at Mohawk College and as an adviser in labour relations to McMaster University.
In 1992, Harry and his wife Rose Marie came west to Squamish to be closer to daughter Jill. Since 1998, they have made their home in West Vancouver.
Harry joined the Royal Canadian Legion in 1992 and serves at Branch 60 in West Vancouver.
With Nov. 11 days away, it’s a busy time for Canada’s legions. The work that goes on behind the scenes to bring the Remembrance Day ceremony to life is in full swing. Poppies now flash a brave scarlet on local lapels thanks to the volunteers at Branch 60. Circular wreaths in square cardboard boxes stack up at the legion hall, ready to be arrayed at West Vancouver’s Cenotaph.
Harry and his fellow veterans will join West Vancouver schools for their Remembrance ceremony on Nov. 10. He will be at Hollyburn elementary, as he was last year when “the teacher played guitar, and the children sang, ‘Blowin’ in the Wind.’” For Harry, Remembrance Day is a time of gratitude and reflection.
Next Friday at the Cenotaph, Harry Greenwood will wear the uniform of Royal Canadian Legion with campaign decorations, among them the Legion of Honour from the Republic of France and the Canadian Minister of Veterans Affairs Commendation, a gold maple leaf resting on a red poppy and a gold bar, surmounted by the Royal Crown. Of this award, the ministry’s highest honour, Harry said, “It was humbling. Standing there with those guys, with all of our decorations, and to think, we were all just boys. We were all just boys.”
Laura Anderson works with and for seniors on the North Shore. 778-279-2275 [email protected]
