VICKY URWIN, HISTORY IN THE MAKING

Chest … OUT, Stomach … IN, Quick … MARCH!  Everyone in total unison, 60 arms swing straight out, shoulder height.  It is the best time of Vicky Blott’s life, serving the country she loves so much, Canada. 

Born Violet, in 1926, there were so many girls named Violet in the small one-room schoolhouse she attended, that Violet became Vicky and stayed that way the rest of her life. 

Although many years have feathered the edges of Vicky’s memories, it is obvious that she’s still as sharp as a push pin.  At 90+ one or two years, so much of Vicky’s life is still as clear as the day she lived it.  So many of those years in military service to ensure the freedom we enjoy today.

In early 1942, Vicky’s home life leaves much to be desired, so she and twin sister, Mabel, decide to enlist at the tender age of 16.  Using slightly altered baptismal certificates, Vicky and Mabel manage to enlist in the Army, which up until March 13, 1942, has really just consisted of hundreds of volunteer women’s corps.  They are considered unofficial before that date. Organized from
coast-to-coast, the military authorities are finally smart enough to integrate these corps into what became the Canadian Women’s Army Corp. Thus, Vicky becomes a CWAC.

Its members wear a cap badge, which consists of three joined maple leaves and two crossed swords. Their collar badges depict the helmeted head of Athena, The Greek Goddess of War and Wisdom.  The creation of CWAC, a milestone in its day and a historical leap forward for women, is the start of a wider trend of women's roles in the Canadian military, which has expanded considerably today.

Vicky recalls basic training lasting a month or two but in the wilds of Kitchener, during the height of winter, it seems to take much longer.  

                      

One of Vicky’s duties is to keep the barracks warm.  She makes many trips to the wood pile, trampling down a deep path in the snow, to keep the stove fed and stoked and her fellow soldiers warm.  Her efforts are appreciated, as her comrades also became her friends, satisfying her yearning for companionship. Coming in on the ground floor of the fledgling CWAC, all the women are equal and have the same opportunities to prove themselves.

Vicky enjoys the camaraderie that develops in the barracks, along with travelling and meeting people from all parts of Canada. She becomes more self-confident and believes that military life has a positive effect on her health, mental and physical. She is proud to belong to the CWAC and to wear its uniform.

Funny only in retrospect, Vicky is scathing when she recounts an experience she has during a two week stay at a summer camp in Niagara-on-the-Lake.  One day, to the female soldier’s astonished eyes, they observe a men’s  platoon marching.  Not an uncommon event but that day … the only thing they have on besides their socks and boots, are their sporrans.  Show offs or chauvinists?  Regardless, it is another example of additional challenges that women soldiers face.  The men, their scanty attire covering up their private parts, stride briskly, sporrans flapping in the breeze, saluting the women in a disdainful way.  Hopefully, not something that would happen today.   

Now living contently in a retirement community not too far from where she was born in Toronto, Vicky loves to sing in a choir, entertaining the ‘old’ folk, playing shuffleboard, serving as a Director for the local Veterans Social Club and going for peaceful walks with Murphy, her 8 year old Shih Tzu.  Penny, the cat, gets to stay home and guard the house.

 

                        

                      Base Borden, May 2014

  

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