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Topic: John Babcock- Regimental Patriarch. (Read 415 times)
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Mike Blais
SSM (NATO Bar), CPSM, UN-Cyp, CD
Ultimate 2000+ Member
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A ROYAL CANADIAN "NEVER PASSES A FAULT"
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Tis a beautiful thing... congratulations, fellow Royal Canadian.
BTW, well done, Jack O'Brien
Babcock earns special distinction
Canada's last living First World War veteran named regimental patriarch
Posted By IAN ELLIOT WHIG-STANDARD STAFF WRITER
Posted 2 hours ago
Jack Babcock is last, and now he has been honoured with a rare Canadian first.
Babcock, who was born in Holleford north of Kingston, is Canada's lone surviving First World War veteran. He recently became not just a member of the Royal Canadian Regiment Association - the regiment with which he served - but has been made the regimental patriarch.
Retired Maj. Hugh Conway of Jasper, Alta., travelled to Babcock's home in Spokane, Wash., to make the presentation. He believed it was the first time that honorary title had been bestowed on someone, not just in the regiment but in Canada.
"Patriarch means an honoured elder male leader, and that's what he is to the regiment," said Conway, who was accompanied by RCMP Const. Peter Lavalee of Jasper when he visited Babcock's home.
"The title is unique - it's never been used before by anyone."
Officials with National Defence's History and Heritage Directorate in Ottawa, which oversees honours and awards in the Canadian Forces, confirm that they are not aware of anyone else being named a patriarch, although they point out it is a symbolic appointment with no official standing in the hierarchy of Canadian awards and titles.
Babcock, who enlisted at age 15 and whose true age was found out before he made it to the trenches, trained in the RCR's reserves in England for two years and was waiting to turn 19 when the war ended.
His regimental affiliations were only confirmed a couple of years ago after historians reviewed his military records, and while Babcock has always downplayed his military service - as he never saw combat - Conway said the regiment wanted to recognize him.
Babcock was thrilled by the honour, the latest in a series of Canadian accolades that include regaining his citizenship after the personal intervention
of Prime Minister Stephen Harper earlier this year.
"When I got to his house, I said, 'It's an honour to meet you, sir,' and he immediately shot back, 'Don't call me sir, I work for a living,' " recalled Conway.
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The ceremony was low-key and after the formal presentation, the two accompanied Babcock to his favourite restaurant, where a small circle of friends helped celebrate.
Still sprightly at 108, over lunch Babcock recited poems he learned during the war and in the parking lot afterwards he belted out a few verses of O Canada.
"I hope I'm that sharp when I'm 75, let alone 108,"Conway said.
The Royal Canadian Regiment is one of the most self-effacing of all Canadian military units and has been historically reluctant to play up its achievements, but one of the members who pushed for recognition for Babcock was Jack O'Brien.
The retired RCR sergeant-major runs a farm on Kingston Mills Road and pushed for Babcock to receive RCMP Const. Peter Lavalee (standing, left) and retired Maj. Hugh Conway (right) of Jasper, Alta. travelled all the way to
Spokane, Wash., to present veteran Jack Babcock with an unusual award. Babcock,
Canada's last living First World War veteran, is now the regimental patriarch of the Royal Canadian Regiment.
"Patriarch means an honoured elder male leader, and that's what he is to the regiment," Conway explained.
some regimental acknowledgement at the unit's recent 125th anniversary reunion here.
"The regiment can only do what the family will allow," he said.
"However, we do not forget a Royal -once a Royal, always a Royal."
Parliament has authorized a rare state funeral to be offered to Babcock's family when he dies, but publicly Babcock has always demurred, saying that honour should have gone to someone who fought.
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1RCR 1977-79 Depot (Italy PL), B Coy, Mortars, Pioneers, D Coy (CFB London)
3RCR 1979-82 M Coy, Pipes & Drums, Sigs, Mortars. (CFB Baden-Soellingen)
1RCR 1982-88 Mortars. Dukes, Cyprus-Welfare NCO 84-85, Injured, WO&Sgts Mess, (CFB London)
1988-92 Med-remuster to HELL/ 35 DU, CFB Baden
1992 Medical release. God Bless you all!
Pro Patria
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ranrad
Ron [Andy] Andrews
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Well, great idea, and very deserving. I am sure he will carry the title well and for the betterof the Regiment and all members...ranrad
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RCAF,CAF, converted RCR?,1RCR 74-77 CD: SSM (Nato);CPSM,;UN-Cyp.; UN- Golan
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Mike Blais
SSM (NATO Bar), CPSM, UN-Cyp, CD
Ultimate 2000+ Member
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A ROYAL CANADIAN "NEVER PASSES A FAULT"
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First World War vet to pass torch in ceremony
Remembrance Day event to mark 90 years since war's end
Jennifer Campbell
The Ottawa Citizen
Friday, November 07, 2008
John 'Jack' Babcock, shown celebrating his 108th birthday in Spokane, Washington, this past July, is Canada's last surviving First World War veteran.
CREDIT: Jeff T. Green, Reuters
John 'Jack' Babcock, shown celebrating his 108th birthday in Spokane, Washington, this past July, is Canada's last surviving First World War veteran.
"Take up our quarrel with the foe: To you, from failing hands we throw The torch; be yours to hold it high. If ye break faith with us who die We shall not sleep, though poppies grow In Flanders Fields."
In Flanders Fields,
Canadian Lt. Col. John McCrae
- - -
Inspired by that verse, Tuesday's Remembrance Day ceremony at the National War Memorial will have a unique feature for a unique anniversary. To mark the 90th anniversary of the end of the First World War, the date for which Remembrance Day was chosen, veterans, a cadet, a peacekeeper and an active soldier will take part in a "passing of the torch" ceremony.
"There's only one (First World War) veteran left, and so we felt it's time that the torch be passed on," explained Bob Butt, spokesman for the Royal Canadian Legion, which organizes the ceremony each year.
At the ceremony, there will be recent video footage of 108-year-old John Babcock, Canada's last surviving First World War veteran, from his home in Spokane, Washington. He will hold out the torch to symbolically pass it to Canadian cadet in Ottawa, who will offer the same torch to Second World War veteran George Dunlop.
Mr. Dunlop, of Carleton Place, served in England and Scotland with the 17th Duke of York Royal Canadian Hussars and landed in France six days after D-Day. He fought in France and was involved in the liberation in Holland.
Mr. Dunlop will then pass the torch to Korean War veteran Wilbert Alwin (Al) Tobio, who went to Korea in 1951 as a stretcher bearer and ambulance attendant. He then joined the Royal Canadian Army Service Corps and served in Canada and abroad before joining the cadet instructors list. The Arnprior resident, who has been national president of the Korea Veterans Association since 2007, retired in 1994 as commanding officer 2677 Royal Canadian Army Cadet Corps.
Mr. Tobio will pass the torch to Ottawa's James Robert O'Brien, who joined the Royal Canadian Army Service Corps in 1960 and subsequently served one year in the Sinai Desert with the United Nations Emergency Force 1, and was commander of the Canadian contingent in the Middle East in 1983.
The torch then goes to Sgt. Randy Gordon Keirstead of the Royal Canadian Dragoons, who served three times -- Bosnia, Kosovo and Afghanistan -- in a reconnaissance squadron.
The ceremony begins at the National War Memorial at 10:55 a.m. Gov. Gen. Michaëlle Jean and Prime Minister Stephen Harper will participate. The silver cross mother is to be announced this morning.
There will also be a ceremony of remembrance at the National Military Cemetery on Nov. 11 from 10:15 a.m. until noon to honour Canadian Forces members interred there and all those who have fallen in the service of Canada.
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1RCR 1977-79 Depot (Italy PL), B Coy, Mortars, Pioneers, D Coy (CFB London)
3RCR 1979-82 M Coy, Pipes & Drums, Sigs, Mortars. (CFB Baden-Soellingen)
1RCR 1982-88 Mortars. Dukes, Cyprus-Welfare NCO 84-85, Injured, WO&Sgts Mess, (CFB London)
1988-92 Med-remuster to HELL/ 35 DU, CFB Baden
1992 Medical release. God Bless you all!
Pro Patria
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ranrad
Ron [Andy] Andrews
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This is nice to see.. we kind of relit the Torch in 1995, at the 50th Anniversary of VE Day, where at our little Legion in the hamlet of Caron Sask, it was the central symbol of the displays.. to us the torch was passed , to carry on for our older , many now failing brothers.. it really struck home at that celebration.. and by the way, that little Legion, 75 members strong, was featured on CBC TV news net at noon news, on 07 Nov 08.. a number of RAF personnel went their and held a Remembrance Service at the RAF veterans plot of the Caron Cemetery, which is cared for by Legion members and their families .. it looks like they had a great service...this cemetery is on the north side of the Trans Canada Highway , just west of Caronport, whicjh is the siote of the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan base of WW 2... their were 10 British airmen killed there whilst training. Those 10 are in their own plot at the cemetery, along with one Cdn who was a WW1 Veteran....about 8 yrs ago , all the headstones were reset by the War Graves commission, and we had a deuce of a time trying to get it re grassed.. there is no water supply and the original grass was natures own, and basically looked after itself.. there is a nice hedge and conifer trees around this plot, a cross and flag pole which flies the Union Jack from first light to last every Remembrance Day, one Legion member, Wayne Wright ensures that flag is up at the break of dawn...his father was a WW1 veteran...members of the Legion in Caron, just south of the Trans Canada, and their wives, mow the grass and trim the hedges several times a year.. and strangely one sees the reverance in these people as they work so quiietly and lovingly to keep these graves looking really nice.. and the grass, well , a horticulturist from Moose Jaw, reseeded for us, free of charge , with a grass that needs no water and is green year round.. " the very least i could do for these heroes " he said...so , if youre ever driving by , there is a gas station and restaurant on the highway at Caronport, which is now a Bible Colleg of some reknown.. they can give you diorections to the cemetery and Legion , keeping in mind the Legion is not always open..if it is you will be quickly welcomed and made to feel like youve alwaysm been there.. there is too a Memorial Cairn, just south of Caron , which was unveiled in homor of William Johstone Milne , who won the Victoria Cross on 09 April 1917 , at Vimy Ridge.. the Cairn is on the farm he had worked on before enlisting and going overseas, never to return.. he is actually one of the thousand sof our brothers who dissappeared in the mud and blood of the battle fields m,and has no known grave.. and the story of how Milne got enlisted is another one , and too long to give here, but i wrote the story way bacl then , when i accidentally had a great chat with a farmer of the area, who , too was at the unveiling of the Cairn for Milne.. anyone wants to hear it i will put it up..ranrad
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RCAF,CAF, converted RCR?,1RCR 74-77 CD: SSM (Nato);CPSM,;UN-Cyp.; UN- Golan
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Mike Blais
SSM (NATO Bar), CPSM, UN-Cyp, CD
Ultimate 2000+ Member
Offline
Gender:
Posts: 3965
A ROYAL CANADIAN "NEVER PASSES A FAULT"
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FYI lads
Their will be a special on John tonight on global tv, 930 pm, EST.
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1RCR 1977-79 Depot (Italy PL), B Coy, Mortars, Pioneers, D Coy (CFB London)
3RCR 1979-82 M Coy, Pipes & Drums, Sigs, Mortars. (CFB Baden-Soellingen)
1RCR 1982-88 Mortars. Dukes, Cyprus-Welfare NCO 84-85, Injured, WO&Sgts Mess, (CFB London)
1988-92 Med-remuster to HELL/ 35 DU, CFB Baden
1992 Medical release. God Bless you all!
Pro Patria
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Mike Blais
SSM (NATO Bar), CPSM, UN-Cyp, CD
Ultimate 2000+ Member
Offline
Gender:
Posts: 3965
A ROYAL CANADIAN "NEVER PASSES A FAULT"
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Last man standing
At 108, John Babcock is the only living Canadian who enlisted to fight for King and Country in the First World War. As Jennifer Campbell writes, the distinction has turned a 15-year-old boy trying to escape a life of poverty in Ontario into a Canadian hero.
The Ottawa Citizen
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
The opportunity that saved John Henry Foster Babcock from a life of poverty is also the thing that has given him fame in old age.
Young John had an idyllic early childhood, growing up on a farm near Kingston. His father, James Thomas Babcock, ran a sawmill and his mother, an Ottawa girl and his father's second wife, raised five children from her husband's first marriage and five more they had together.
All was well with the Babcock clan -- Jack remembers fishing, swimming and hunting -- until their father died in a tree-cutting accident. He was 44; Jack was six. His mother, Ann Isabel Foster Babcock, tried everything she could, but in the end, she couldn't run the farm and moved to Saskatchewan, where she became a housekeeper to earn what money she could for her family. The younger children were sent to live with their older siblings and Jack remembers how poor they were. He's been known to tell how they would cut wood for food.
When Jack was just 15, as he and his older brothers were scrounging to get by, the recruiters came calling. One recited The Charge of the Light Brigade by Tennyson to him. Jack was dazzled, and figured this was his chance to take charge of his future. He joined the 146th Battalion and travelled to Valcartier, Que., where his age was discovered. He was sent to the Wellington Barracks in Halifax and later grabbed a chance to head overseas with the Royal Canadian Regiment, again lying about his age. Again discovered, he was sent to a Young Soldiers Battalion in Scotland in 1917. The war ended before he saw action, a great regret, but the opportunities his service offered gave him a good start in life back at home.
"He says now that he needed some guidance," says his second wife, Dorothy, from their comfortable home in Spokane, Washington.
"He said it really helped him because he had to work hard. He also says it taught him morality and honesty. He still remembers learning about honour and respect for authority in the Canadian Forces."
The leap of faith he took at 15 remains with him today in another way: John Babcock is the only living Canadian who enlisted to fight for King and Country in the First World War. At 108, he's become a Canadian hero and the last living link to the Great War. Though he lives in Washington, he receives regular visits from journalists and politicians from Canada. For his 107th birthday, he received a letter of congratulations from the Queen and a tie covered in poppies from Prime Minister Stephen Harper.
It wasn't his only communication with Mr. Harper. Last April, when Veterans Affairs Minister Greg Thompson presented him with a commendation at an event set up at Mr. Babcock's favourite restaurant, Rosauers, the veteran, in his quiet way, suggested he'd like to have his Canadian citizenship back. After taking advantage of veteran vocational training, he moved to the U.S., where he joined the military for three years, and eventually became a naturalized citizen. It meant he had to give up his Canadian ties -- dual citizenship wasn't allowed at the time. The minister said he should write the prime minister a letter. He grabbed a pen and did so immediately. "Dear PM," he wrote. "Could I have my citizenship restored? I would appreciate your help. Thank you, John Babcock."
Within a month, Mr. Thompson was back in Spokane, with the required paperwork and citizenship officials, to attend a Canadian oath of citizenship ceremony.
Apart from the attention he gets as Canada's last surviving veteran, Mr. Babcock and his wife live a quiet life. Mrs. Babcock was a nurse to his first wife, Elsie, to whom he was married for 45 years before her death 32 years ago.
"Jack remembered me from the hospital," says Mrs. Babcock, who had been divorced for 12 years at the time. "He came by and asked about the nurse whose nametag read 'Ms.' Then he called me and asked if I was married."
At first, Mrs. Babcock, who at 47 was nearly 30 years younger than Mr. Babcock, was only interested in friendship. Soon, though, she fell in love.
"I realized I really liked this guy and couldn't do a thing about his age."
The two have spent 32 years together, travelling, golfing and studying by correspondence. Mr. Babcock received his high school diploma at the age of 95.
His health is still good -- he's mobile enough to get himself around, and uses a walker if he's going any distance. The couple try to go to Rosauers every day for lunch or a coffee and he's happy to sit in the car while Mrs. Babcock runs errands. Otherwise, he "nests" in a sunroom where he has a TV set turned to Charlie Rose when he's on, and a couple of young cats to keep him amused. He's baffled by the Internet "and this dot-com business" and though he is a long-time Republican, he reluctantly supported Barack Obama in the election last week. He has always maintained that he doesn't support American troops in Iraq.
Mrs. Babcock says until this year, they still travelled regularly. Mr. Babcock worked until he was 89 and when he was 100, they went to Surrey, B.C., to see his mother's final resting place, a pauper's grave with no headstone. She died of cancer in 1929 at the age of 56. Mr. Babcock was living in California at the time, but he made it to her death bed in B.C. When he visited her grave, he considered buying her a stone, but decided the money would be better spent on his grandchildren, on the next generation.
Between them, Mr. and Mrs. Babcock have 16 grandchildren and six great-grandchildren. Mr. Babcock has one son, who lives 80 kilometres north of Spokane, and a daughter who lives in Montana.
The onetime avid hiker has always said that when the time comes, he wanted a service in his area church, and to have his ashes scattered in the hills. Canadians had been lobbying for a state funeral for the last remaining First World War veteran, but because he never saw battle, Mr. Babcock doesn't feel worthy.
"It's very much an honour," Mrs. Babcock says. "Had he been a war hero, then maybe he'd consider it."
© The Ottawa Citizen 2008
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1RCR 1977-79 Depot (Italy PL), B Coy, Mortars, Pioneers, D Coy (CFB London)
3RCR 1979-82 M Coy, Pipes & Drums, Sigs, Mortars. (CFB Baden-Soellingen)
1RCR 1982-88 Mortars. Dukes, Cyprus-Welfare NCO 84-85, Injured, WO&Sgts Mess, (CFB London)
1988-92 Med-remuster to HELL/ 35 DU, CFB Baden
1992 Medical release. God Bless you all!
Pro Patria
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ranrad
Ron [Andy] Andrews
Ultimate 2000+ Member
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Posts: 2657
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But, i think, and truly believe he was a War Hero...and is a War Veteran and Hero... ranrad
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RCAF,CAF, converted RCR?,1RCR 74-77 CD: SSM (Nato);CPSM,;UN-Cyp.; UN- Golan
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