Cape Breton Deaths courtesy of CAPE BRETON GENEALOGY & HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION VISIT OUR WEBSITE - <http://www.cbgen.org/>www.cbgen.org NEW MEMBERS WELCOME Cape Breton Post November 18, 2013 Monday "Bad news war telegrams came with a clergyman" "CANADIAN PACIFIC TELEGRAPHS - World Wide Communications - Ottawa Ontario March 30 1943 1148 am Standard Time" (Notice the absence of any punctuation such as periods or commas.) It was the telegram that no Canadian family wanted to receive, but in the First and Second World Wars thousands upon thousands of such notices went out to families and individuals all across the country. However, before it was hand-delivered to a home, the telegraph operator who received the message would contact a member of the clergy, who would accompany the telegraph messenger to that particular home. The sight of a clergyman on your doorstep, with a young telegraph messenger by his side, was enough to strike the greatest fear into any individual, especially a parent. In this case the telegram, which I have on my desk as I write, was addressed to my maternal grandfather. "Hector MacLean Archibald Avenue North Sydney NS regret to inform you advice has been received from the Royal Canadian Air Force Casualties Officer Overseas that your son Pilot Officer Rannie Gabriel MacLean J two two four nine nine (his military ID number) is reported missing as the result of air operations on March twenty eighth nineteen forty three stop (the word 'stop' was used to tell the telegrapher to begin a new sentence or paragraph.) In the best interests of the possible safety of your son it is requested that you withhold any information from press or radio until his name appears in Official Casualty List five weeks hence stop letter following RCAF Casualties Officer". These telegrams were simple and to the point, unadorned by any fancy language or rhetoric. They were not signed, and did not attempt to give any explanation for what might have happened. They just stated the facts, as they were known at that time. When you consider that 44, 093 Canadians were killed in the Second World War, and at total of 66, 665 in the First World War, the Casualties Branch of the Armed Forces in Ottawa was a very busy place. In the case of my uncle Rannie, he took off for a long-range anti-submarine flight on the evening of March 28, 1943. Through extensive research I now know that the type of Vickers Wellington twin-engine bomber that he flew in had a range of more than 2,500 miles, and flew at a maximum speed of 235 miles per hour. (Quite slow by today's standards.) His type of aircraft could be on patrol for at least 10 hours and, depending on wind and weather conditions, for up to 11 or 12 hours! That means that his aircraft did not return from patrol until sometime the next day, March 29, when his aircraft would have been listed as "Missing in Action." The very next day, at 11:48 a.m. (Atlantic Time) on the morning of March 30, the above telegram was delivered to my home on Archibald Avenue, in North Sydney. Even now, after all these years, I am quite amazed with the record-keeping ability of the Canadian Armed Forces back in Second World War. And this was long before the age of high-speed computers, cell phones, or satellite communications. How did they do it? Next week: two "official" letters from the Royal Air Force in England, within one week. Rannie Gillis is an author and avid Celtic historian whose column appears every week in the Cape Breton Post. He can by reached by email at [email protected]