Jim English

"I was just a dumb, homestead kid," Jim English says with a smile. Enlisting in the army in June, 1940, English was only 15 as he began his training. "I signed up in Prince George and trained all over B.C."

He then spent several months on guard in Ucluelet, before eventually being sent overseas. He celebrated his eighteenth birthday traveling across Canada. "Dick and George Gibson and my brother Glen and I all went over in the same boat."

English was assigned to the 1st Canadian Division and spent three years overseas, serving in Italy, France and Great Britain. he was involved in three assault landings and wounded twice, both by hand grenade shrapnel. He was back home before his 21st birthday.

"I never was a kid. I was an old man by the time I was 21. Being in battle, losing friends - it just became the norm."

Like many other young servicemen, the irony of his situation was put into perspective upon his return home. "I was walking into a pub in Vancouver, and I was wearing my serviceman's button at the time. They still had to ask me for proof that I was 21. I could fight a war, but I still had a hard time getting a beer."

Discharged in October 1945, English bought property in Coalmont in 1952. He moved to the area permanently in 1972. "I signed up just to see the world. But once I got over there I got very patriotic."