WILLIAM JAMES NEVILLE HAGGINS
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Birthplace: Enlisted: Date: Place: Tour: Rank: Discharge: Place: Re-Enlisted: Date: Rank: Discharge: |
April 26, 1921 The Royal Canadian Air Force October 29, 1941 Windsor, Ontario England, Syria, Egypt Corporal October 19, 1945 Toronto, Ontario Army - RCEME Corps September 20, 1949 Major November 26, 1969 |
William James Neville Haggins ... in his own words
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“In 1940, I was working in the Imperial Bank in Harrow, Ontario. On one day in the autumn of that year the three staff members, not including the manager, went together to the RCAF recruiting office in Windsor.
We were all accepted and were inducted in very short order, all in different capacities. I shose Radar Technician. After approximately one year of preparation, in Toronto, London and Clinton, I went overseas to England in September, 1941. I spent one year in Cornwall servicing ground radar stations. I then volunteered to serve in another area and found myself as part of a mobile Radar unit in Syria, anticipating service in Turkey. After a few weeks in Syria, we heard on the radio that the British Military Mission had failed to convince Turkey to declare war on Germany. With the others, I was returned to Egypt and spent the remaining years attached to an RAF technical Unit in Cairo until VE Day 1945. Repatriation back to England and then home took about five months until my release on October 19, 1945. An interesting fact is that both my brother Vivian, who had enlisted before me, and I both served 3 years, 356 days in the RCAF.” P.S. I subsequently joined the Canadian Army, RCEME Corps on September 20, 1949 and served until November 26, 1969, obtaining the rank of Major. W.J.N. Haggins |
