Wartime lovers receive recognition for efforts abroad 70 years later

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This article was published 30/11/2015 (3314 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Love carried Ian and Betty Wilson through the long days and nights of the Second World War.

Often, the two never knew when — or whether — the next letter would come or whether they’d ever see each other again.

But Tuesday afternoon at Deer Lodge Centre, they were still side-by-side and at times hand-in-hand, as they have been over the past 70 years of marriage, receiving recognition for their wartime efforts abroad.

Recognition that was long overdue, in the opinion of the Wilsons’ family.

“It took 70 years,” said Denis Rochon, Ian and Betty’s son-in-law.

Rochon spearheaded the effort to get his in-laws recognized.

“They’re getting some of the recognition all veterans deserve,” he said.

Ian, 96, and Betty, 92, received a Certificate of Recognition signed by former Prime Minister Stephen Harper. Betty was also awarded Her Majesty’s Armed Forces Veterans Badge and the War Medal 1939-1945 for service to her country.

“I’m a little overwhelmed,” said Betty, who teared up as Col. Andy Cook, Wing Commander of 17 Wing CFB Winnipeg attached the medal to her coat.

The couple’s appreciation for being honoured didn’t come without some reluctance.

Both Ian and Betty feel there’s a long list of those who also deserve the recognition they received. Unfortunately, they said, it’s too late for most.

“I just feel like anyone who put on uniform deserves to be recognized. They were vital and they’ve been forgotten,” Betty said. “Don’t forget. Never forget.”

It’s been quite the journey for the couple, who first laid eyes on each other at a dance on RAF Redhill in Surrey, England in 1943.

“He tapped me on the shoulder,” Betty said. “I turned around thinking, ‘Who’s this stranger tapping me on the shoulder?’ I saw these great big blue eyes and fell in love immediately.”

Betty, an aircraftwoman drafted in 1942 to the British Royal Air Force, and Ian, a corporal in the Royal Canadian Air Force were separated as the war intensified. Both bounced around from post-to-post. Ian, an armorer with the RCAF’s 411 Spitfire Squadron, arrived in Normandy just after the beach had been stormed.

“We’d send letters to each other,” Betty said. “(Ian) memorized my mother’s address. My mother always knew were I was, but Ian didn’t, so he’d send them to my mother who would forward them to me.

“It was very nice, because I didn’t know how he found the time to write. It was amazing that he would write when he was busy.”

The couple was married in London in May 1945. They took a three-week honeymoon and when August came, so did the ship to take Ian back to Canada. Betty would soon follow in February 1946.

“I was terribly homesick for months,” she said. “You’ve just think you’ve come to the end of the world, if I took a step I’d fall off. Ian told me I was making a big mistake, going from London to Virden.”

She didn’t think it was a mistake, she said, and the rest is history.

The Wilsons were flanked by four generations of family on Tuesday along with other residents of Deer Lodge, councillor Scott Gillingham and members of 17 Wing CFB Winnipeg.

Ian moved into Deer Lodge earlier this year due to health complications that require him to receive long-term physiotherapy. Betty comes to visit three times a week and still lives independently at home.

And their key to 70 years of marriage? Simple.

“Just letting each one of us be ourselves,” Betty said

The couple also threw the switch to light up the Christmas Tree inside Deer Lodge. The event marked the official kick off to the centre’s Starburst Celebration, its annual fundraising campaign.

Ian’s application for the Legion of Honour, France’s highest national distinction established by Napoleon Bonaparte in the early 1800s, is pending review. Rochon says they should know whether he gets it later this month.

scott.billeck@freepress.mb.ca