G... Names     GO... Names     GOU... Names     Welcome Home

GOURLIE - All Categories in OGSPI

GOURSKY o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.toronto_star 2005-03-12 published
BYSTRYCKI, Mary
Peacefully, at the Ukrainian Canadian Care Centre, on Wednesday, March 9, 2005. Mary BYSTRYCKI, dear mother of Anne and her husband William GOURSKY. Loving grandmother of Drew and his wife Nancy, and Christopher. Sadly missed by her cousin Anna BURIJ, family and Friends. Resting at the Newediuk Funeral Home, Kipling Chapel, 2104 Kipling Ave., Etobicoke (two blocks north of Rexdale Blvd.), from Sunday 2-4 p.m. and 7-9 p.m. with Panakhyda at 7: 30 p.m. Funeral Liturgy Monday at 10 a.m. from the Ukrainian Canadian Care Centre Chapel, 60 Richview Rd. Mrs. BYSTRYCKI will rest in the Care Centre from 9 a.m. Monday. Interment Park Lawn Cemetery. Special thanks to staff and volunteers at the Ukrainian Canadian Care Centre.

  G... Names     GO... Names     GOU... Names     Welcome Home

GOURSKY - All Categories in OGSPI

GOUSVARIS o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.toronto_star 2005-08-18 published
GOUSVARIS, Evangelia " Angela"
Peacefully at Humber River Regional Hospital, on Wednesday, August 17, 2005 at the age of 59. Beloved wife of John. Loving mother of Dan, Larry and John Jr. Mother-in-law of Barbara and proud grandmother of Rebecca, David, Andrew, Michael and Adam. Dear sister of Mary, Kathy, Sophie and Helen. Family and Friends may be received at Lynett Funeral Home, 3299 Dundas St. West. (one block east of Runnymede Rd.), Thursday 7-9 p.m. and Friday 2-4 p.m. and 7-9 p.m. Funeral Mass 9: 30 a.m. on Saturday August 20, 2005 at Sts. Helen and Constantine Greek Orthodox Church (Tretheway and Black Creek Drive). Interment at Riverside and Sanctuary Park Cemetery. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Canadian Cancer Society.

  G... Names     GO... Names     GOU... Names     Welcome Home

GOUSVARIS o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.toronto_star 2005-11-16 published
GOUSVARIS, Tracy (née HOWSON)
Suddenly, on November 10, 2005 at age 37. Beloved wife of Gordon SNELLINGS. Loving mother of Rebecca, David and Andrew. Caring step-mom to Shane and Kevin. Tracy is survived by her mother Millie and sister Andrea (Ross). She will always be remembered by the father of her children, Dan. Tracy is predeceased by her father David HOWSON. Tracy will be sadly missed by all her family and Friends. Friends will be received at the Neweduk Funeral Home - "Mississauga Chapel", 1981 Dundas St. W. (1 block east of Erin Mills Pkwy.) on Thursday from 2-4 p.m. and 7-9 p.m. A Celebration of Life Service will be held in the Chapel on Friday, November 18, 2005 at 11 a.m. Interment Springcreek Cemetery. In memory of Tracy, donations may be made to a charity of your choice. Neweduk Funeral Home 905-828-8000 www.neweduk.com

  G... Names     GO... Names     GOU... Names     Welcome Home

GOUSVARIS - All Categories in OGSPI

GOUTHRO o@ca.on.middlesex_county.london.london_free_press 2005-01-03 published
GOUTHRO, Thomas A.
Suddenly, January 1st, 2005, in his 74th year, M.W.O. Thomas A. GOUTHRO, C.D. (Retired.) son of the late Thomas GOUTHRO and Helen WEST (Kentville, Nova Scotia). Beloved husband of 51 years to Jeannette (BROADFOOT.) Father of Heather (Kingston,) Linda (London,) and the late Ron GOUTHRO. Cherished grandfather of Mark (Nikki), Erin, James, and Ron, all of Kingston, and Thomas (Stephanie), Natasha (Hubert), and Timothy all of London. Special great-grandfather of Thomas, Tiernan and Owen of Kingston, and Nadia, Taishyla, and Zion of London. Dear brother of Margo (California), Helen (Toronto), Robert, Beverley Anne (Bill), Rosemary (Art), and Paul (Caroline) all of Nova Scotia, and the late Ronald and Henry James. Fondly remembered by many nieces and nephews and his brothers and sisters in marriage, Bud, Pat, Ruth (Terry), Shirley (Lloyd), Diane, and their families all of London. The family will receive Friends at the Westview Funeral Chapel, 709 Wonderland Road North, on Tuesday, January 4th, 2005 at 10: 00 a.m. with a memorial service to follow in the chapel at 11: 00 a.m. Private interment of ashes at Mount Pleasant Cemetery. In lieu of flowers, those wishing to make a donation in memory of Thomas are asked to consider Heart and Stroke Foundation of Ontario or the London Health Sciences Foundation - Cancer Centre.

  G... Names     GO... Names     GOU... Names     Welcome Home

GOUTHRO o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.globe_and_mail 2005-07-07 published
JACKSON, Margo▼ (née GOUTHRO)
Born March 24, 1928 at Glace Bay, Nova Scotia, died Wednesday, July 6, 2005, peacefully after a courageous fight with cancer at Markham-Stouffville Hospital. Predeceased by her father John Seaward GOUTHRO, mother Ann GOUTHRO (CHAISSON) and brothers Arthur & Wilfred. Beloved wife of Maxwell. Dear mother of Maxwell Rand (Martha), Judith (Jim WHITE/WHYTE) and Sharon (Tom DINSMORE). Loving nana of Christopher, Carolyn, Sarah, Andrew, Robert, Matthew, Teddy and great-grandmother of Curtis, Evan and Jonah. Dear sister of Russell GOUTHRO and Marie HUGHES. Margo▼ attended Saint Anne's High School, Glace Bay, Nova Scotia and Mt. St. Vincent in Halifax. Friends will be received at the Dixon-Garland Funeral Home, 166 Main St. N. (Markham Rd.), Markham on Friday 2-4 and 7-9 p.m. Funeral Mass at the Church of St. Patrick, 5633 Hwy. #7, Markham on Saturday at 11: 00 a.m. Interment Christ the King Cemetery. The family wishes to thank the staff at Mt. Sinai, Princess Margaret and especially Markham-Stouffville Hospital for their sensitive and professional care. In lieu of flowers, donations to Markham-Stouffville Hospital would be appreciated.

  G... Names     GO... Names     GOU... Names     Welcome Home

GOUTHRO o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.toronto_star 2005-07-07 published
JACKSON, Margo▲ (née GOUTHRO)
Born March 24, 1928 at Glace Bay, Nova Scotia, died Wednesday, July 6, 2005, peacefully after a courageous fight with cancer at Markham-Stouffville Hospital. Predeceased by her father John Seaward GOUTHRO, mother Ann GOUTHRO (CHAISSON) and brothers Arthur and Wilfred. Beloved wife of Maxwell. Dear mother of Maxwell RAND (Martha), Judith (Jim WHITE/WHYTE), and Sharon (Tom DINSMORE). Loving nana of Christopher, Carolyn, Sarah, Andrew, Robert, Matthew, Teddy, and great-grandmother of Curtis, Evan and Jonah. Dear sister of Russell GOUTHRO and Marie HUGHES. Margo▲ attended St. Anne's High School, Glace Bay, Nova Scotia and Mt. St. Vincent in Halifax. Friends will be received at the Dixon-Garland Funeral Home, 166 Main St. N., (Markham Rd.), Markham on Friday 2-4 and 7-9 p.m. Funeral Mass at the Church of St. Patrick, 5633 Hwy. 7, Markham on Saturday at 11: 00 a.m. Interment Christ the King Cemetery. The family wishes to thank the staff at Mt. Sinai, Princess Margaret and especially Markham-Stouffville Hospital for their sensitive and professional care. In lieu of flowers, donations to Markham-Stouffville Hospital would be appreciated.

  G... Names     GO... Names     GOU... Names     Welcome Home

GOUTHRO - All Categories in OGSPI

GOUVEIA o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.toronto_star 2005-10-07 published
NASCIMENTO, Albert Compton
Passed away peacefully in his 99th year at the Scarborough Grace Hospital on Wednesday, October 5, 2005. He was predeceased by his daughter Melrose JARDINE, his brothers Carlos and Tony and his sisters Angie and Elaine. He will be lovingly remembered by his loving wife of 70 years, Veronica, his children Compton (Barbara) of England, Theresa RAI, Shirleen AZEVEDO, Camille (Dennis) SHAW, Angela (Monty) HENSON, Albert Jr. (Bernadette,) Genevieve (Joe) MASON, Daune (Frank) GOUVEIA, 20 grandchildren, 16 great-grandchildren, his sister Eloise and many nieces and nephews. The family will receive Friends from 2-4 and 7-9 p.m. on Friday at Highland Funeral Home, Markham Chapel (northeast corner of 16th Ave. and Hwy. 404). The Funeral Mass will be held at 10: 00 a.m. on Saturday, October 8th at Prince of Peace Roman Catholic Church, 265 Alton Towers Circle, Scarborough. Interment to follow in Pine Hills Cemetery.

  G... Names     GO... Names     GOU... Names     Welcome Home

GOUVEIA o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.toronto_star 2005-10-31 published
BRADSHAW, Lawrence " Larry"
At the Norfolk General Hospital, on Friday, October 28, 2005, in his 73rd year. Beloved husband of Jackie BRADSHAW. Dearest father of Tom, Paul (Sharon,) Matthew (Karen,) Beth JONES (Kevin,) Mary TELTZ (Richard), Theresa GOUVEIA (Harry), and Lorraine BRADSHAW (Rob WEST.) Will be sadly missed by his brother Tim FRY (Kathy,) mother-in-law Betty OWEN, and sister-in-law Audrey FRY. Cherished grandfather of Christopher, Lynn, Jon, Rachelle, Rebecca, Shawn, Jacob, Dale, Sean, Stephanie and Emily. Predeceased by his parents Lorraine and Tom FRY and his son Lawrence BRADSHAW. Larry was dedicated to the St. Vincent De Paul Society, a member of St. Mary's Roman Catholic Church, and the Simcoe Seniors Club. The family will receive Friends to share their memories of Larry at The Baldock Funeral Home, 96 Norfolk St. N., Simcoe, on Monday (today) from 2-4 and 7-9 p.m. Parish Prayers will be said at the funeral home on Monday evening at 7: 00 p.m. Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated from Saint Mary's Roman Catholic Church (corner of Queen and Union Sts.), on Tuesday, November 1, 2005 at 11: 00 a.m., Father Dikran ISLEMECI Celebrant. Interment to follow at Saint Mary's Cemetery. Donations in memory of Larry, can be made to the St. Vincent De Paul Society and would be gratefully acknowledged by the family. Baldock's, 519-426-0291.

  G... Names     GO... Names     GOU... Names     Welcome Home

GOUVEIA o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.toronto_star 2005-11-11 published
GOUVEIA, Jorge (March 23, 1925-November 10, 2005)
Of Fairview Nursing Home, Toronto. Visitation 1-9 p.m. today at the Ryan and Odette Funeral Home, 1498 Dundas St. W., Toronto. Mass 9 a.m. Saturday at St. Helen's Church to Prospect Cemetery. Mr. GOUVEIA who died at his residence, is survived by: wife Lucilia children Jorge (Germana,) Luis (Dalia,) Lucy BORGES (Dorvalino,) Maria SILVA (Carlos,) Emanuel (Suzanne;) 15 grandchildren; 3 great-grandchildren. Parking is no problem - simply enter from Dufferin just north of Dundas.

  G... Names     GO... Names     GOU... Names     Welcome Home

GOUVEIA - All Categories in OGSPI

GOUW o@ca.on.middlesex_county.london.london_free_press 2005-02-22 published
HORSFIELD, Emily Marion (LOWERY/LOWREY/LOWRIE/LOWRY)
At Strathroy Middlesex General Hospital on Sunday, February 20th, 2005, Emily Marion (LOWERY/LOWREY/LOWRIE/LOWRY) HORSFIELD of Poplar Hill Ontario in her 84th year. Beloved wife of the late James Edward HORSFIELD (1980.) Loving mother of Sandra HORSFIELD of Poplar Hill, Judy and Barry NASH of Thorndale and Jayne MYERS of London. Dear grandmother of Lee Anne MULLER (Gerry), Jim NASH (Jim GOUW), Todd HORSFIELD (Jennifer,) Carolyn MYERS- BOONE (Mark) and Heather MYERS (Matt WARD.) Great grandmother of Devonté NASH- MULLER. There will be no visitation. Private Funeral Service to be held on Wednesday, February 23rd from Denning Brothers Funeral Home, in Strathroy with Reverend Father Willi KAMMERER officiating. Interment First Lobo Baptist Cemetery. In lieu of flowers, donations to the Canadian Cancer Society or the Heart and Stroke Foundation would be appreciated by the family. A tree will be planted as a living memorial to Emily.

  G... Names     GO... Names     GOU... Names     Welcome Home

GOUW - All Categories in OGSPI

GOUZENKO o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.globe_and_mail 2005-02-07 published
SMITH, Arnold Cantwell, 1994
Monday, February 7, 2005 - Page S6
Diplomat born in Toronto on January 18, 1915. He joined External Affairs in the middle of the Second World War and was sent to Russia until late 1945. After the defection of Russian Igor GOUZENKO, he was secretary to the Kellock-Taschereau Royal Commission. Later, he was posted to Brussels, London and New York, and rose to become envoy to Egypt in 1958, and then to Moscow from 1961 to 1963. In 1965, he was made Secretary-General of the Commonwealth and retired 10 years later. He wrote several books about foreign policy and in 1976, he became a teacher of international affairs at Carleton University in Ottawa.

  G... Names     GO... Names     GOU... Names     Welcome Home

GOUZENKO o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.globe_and_mail 2005-10-06 published
Man who spied for Moscow was exposed by GOUZENKO
Reuters, Thursday, October 6, 2005, Page S9
Ottawa -- An Ontario man who, in 1947, was jailed for his role as a Soviet spy during the Second World War died on Monday after suffering a fall. Gordon LUNAN was 90.
He had been arrested after Igor GOUZENKO, an embassy cipher clerk in the Soviet Union's Ottawa embassy, defected in September of 1945 with documents revealing a major spy ring in Canada, the United States and Britain.
Mr. LUNAN, who admitted passing information about sonar systems to Soviet officials during the war, was convicted of violating the Official Secrets Act and spent five years in prison.
"Far from damaging Canada, my motive -- and I assumed it must have been theirs also -- was to help Canada by helping our most powerful and effective ally and thereby shortening the war," he wrote in a 1995 autobiography.
Mr. LUNAN knew he was in trouble when he heard of GOUZENKO's defection. "I realized at once that life would never be the same again... I clearly saw prison bars in the future," he said.
After he was released, his first marriage ended in divorce but he quickly remarried and enjoyed a long career in advertising.
Mr. LUNAN died two weeks after experiencing a bad fall at his home near Hawkesbury, Ontario

  G... Names     GO... Names     GOU... Names     Welcome Home

GOUZENKO o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.globe_and_mail 2005-10-15 published
Gordon LUNAN, Spy (1915-2005)
Named as a Soviet agent by Igor GOUZENKO, he maintained to the end that he did not mean to betray Canada, only to defeat Nazis, writes Sandra MARTIN
By Sandra MARTIN, Saturday, October 15, 2005, Page S9
As a left-leaning advertising copywriter, Gordon LUNAN would probably have ended his days in obscurity if Igor GOUZENKO, a cipher clerk in the Soviet embassy in Ottawa, had not defected in September, 1945, and offered him up as a trophy.
"He definitely passed information and acted as a go-between for the Soviets, as the Russians were called then," says historian Amy Knight. She interviewed Mr. LUNAN extensively for her forthcoming book, How the Cold War Began.
"He really didn't know what he was getting into" and the information he passed on was inconsequential, in her view. "He violated the law but he didn't do any harm to Canadian national security."
Compared with spies such as Kim Philby and Guy Burgess, Mr. LUNAN hardly rated as a threat, but his story is significant for what it reveals about the times and how Canadians responded to the news that we harboured Soviet spy rings during the Second World War.
David Gordon LUNAN was born in Scotland, one of four sons of a commercial traveller. When Gordon was 9, the family moved to London where his father was put in charge of persuading the public to buy Congoleum, a cheap substitute for linoleum. He did so well that the company tried to renegotiate his contract, a cheat that was not lost on his son, who tended even then to side with the underdog.
His father's earnings made it possible to send Gordon to Belmont, a feeder school for Mill Hill School, a non-conformist public school on the outskirts of London. A boarder from the age of 10, he liked school and did well, ending up as one of two head boys at Belmont. At Mill Hill, he was taught music, theatre and officer training along with standard school subjects.
He graduated at 17 in 1932 and immediately began an apprenticeship with the S.H. Benson advertising agency. It took him two years to secure a place in the copy department (where Dorothy Sayers had once toiled), becoming, at 20, the agency's youngest copywriter.
Meanwhile, fascism was on the rise in Germany, where Adolf Hitler became chancellor in 1933. The Soviet Union, ruled by Joseph Stalin, had joined the League of Nations in 1934 and become an active player in the fascist/anti-fascist political machinations. In 1935, Mussolini invaded Abyssinia from the adjacent Italian territory of Somaliland.
A year later, Mr. LUNAN visited Spain and saw the anti-democratic and repressive effects of General Francisco Franco's crusade to destroy the republican government. Back in England, where Sir Oswald Mosley was gathering momentum for his British Union of Fascists, Mr. LUNAN joined the anti-appeasement movement. He was convinced that another war was inevitable.
There were plenty of causes he could have joined in England. Instead, in 1938, he decided to immigrate to Canada and leave the political unease behind him.
He soon found a job with the A. McKim advertising agency in Montreal, took a lease on a large flat with Friends on what is now Aylmer Avenue and immersed himself in the city's left-wing artistic community. The Quebec of Premier Maurice Duplessis was rigidly authoritarian, overtly Catholic and rampantly anti-Semitic. This was the era of the infamous Padlock Law that allowed authorities to padlock the premises of any people suspected of communist connections.
Mr. LUNAN quickly turned from a left-leaning sympathizer into an activist, connected to communist groups and supporters of the Canadians who had formed the Mackenzie Papineau Battalion in 1936 and gone to fight for the republican cause in the Spanish Civil War.
He was part of a welcoming committee at Windsor Station for a train load of Mac-Paps returning from the Spanish Civil War in 1938. Anticipating that the reception might get out of hand, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the local press were out in force and Mr. LUNAN was snapped giving a clenched-fist salute.
In the spring of 1939, he met Phyllis NEWMAN, a Polish emigré. Their family backgrounds could not have been more different, but they espoused similar political causes and married months later, right after Britain declared war on Germany. Their only child was born in July, 1945.
About this time, he also met Fred ROSE, a union organizer and Communist Party member who, in 1945, would become the first person elected to the House of Commons on the Communist ticket. While Mr. LUNAN never joined the Communist Party, he certainly befriended members of the party and offered them space in his apartment for meetings.
In 1943, Mr. LUNAN enlisted in the Canadian Army as a private, earned a commission as a lieutenant a year later and was posted to Ottawa to the wartime information board. Mainly, he worked on Canadian Affairs, a newsletter providing a summary of Canadian news and editorials for troops stationed abroad and in Canada.
While he was in Ottawa, he met frequently with Mr. ROSE, who urged him to befriend Russians working at the embassy in Ottawa. Mr. LUNAN readily agreed and had a series of meetings with Colonel Rogov, who asked him to solicit information from scientists who were Soviet sympathizers.
Eager to oblige, Mr. LUNAN passed along whatever information he was able to glean and recruited others to the cause. "Far from damaging Canada," he wrote 50 years later in his memoirs, "my motive -- and I assumed it must have been theirs also -- was to help Canada by helping our most powerful and effective ally and thereby shortening the war."
He was promoted to captain in June, 1945, and sent to London by the Canadian Information Service. One of his supervisors described him as "a very ordinary, likeable chap with not too much imagination but very industrious."
The war was over in Europe, the first meeting of the General Assembly of the United Nations was about to take place in Westminster Central Hall in London. He was sent to Canada House in January, 1946, to help with the publicity and ended up working as a pinch-hitting speechwriter for Paul MARTIN Sr.
Back home, his world had begun to collapse. Mr. LUNAN later said that he knew he was in trouble as soon as he heard that Mr. GOUZENKO had defected and brought documentation with him about an extensive Soviet espionage network linking Canada, the United States and Britain and directed at finding information about the U.S. atomic-bomb program. Mr. GOUZENKO implicated Mr. LUNAN as a "recruiting agent" and the leader of a cell of three others who were passing information to Soviet intelligence on trends in Canadian politics and military weapons.
In February, 1946, Mr. LUNAN was summoned back to Ottawa for "an important assignment." After his plane landed in Montreal, he was surrounded and restrained by three men in plain clothes, frisked and taken to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police barracks in Rockcliffe, a suburb of Ottawa. Two days later he was read a detailed surveillance record dating back to 1939 and a list of alleged co-conspirators.
Civil liberties were trampled on in the round-ups and detentions at that time, says Wesley WARK, a specialist in Canadian security and intelligence. Most of the detainees were woken up in dawn raids, denied access to lawyers and not cautioned about incriminating themselves. All of this was legal, says Prof. WARK, because Canada had not yet rescinded the War Measures Act, at least partly because of Mr. GOUZENKO's defection.
Mr. LUNAN confessed and implicated some of the men he had recruited. This was his biggest regret at the end of his life, said Prof. KNIGHT. "If you are a believer in the cause, the last thing you want to do is to implicate your fellow comrades. And he did."
Mr. LUNAN was convicted in November, 1946. Before his sentence was handed down, he told the judge: "I do not consider myself guilty of the charge either in law or in fact." Nevertheless, he spent the next five years in Kingston Penitentiary with extra time tacked on for refusing to testify in court about some of the colleagues he had implicated earlier.
His marriage held together while he was in prison, but fell apart quickly thereafter. He met his second wife, Miriam MAGEE, the love of his life, at the party thrown to celebrate his release from prison. They were married in Montreal, where Mr. LUNAN was again working in the advertising business.
He eventually opened his own agency and retired with his wife to the countryside near Ottawa in 1975. He spent the rest of his life growing strawberries, cooking gourmet meals, espousing social justice principles to his step-grandchildren, and writing two memoirs, The Making of a Spy (published in 1995) and Redhanded: Inside the Spy Ring that Changed the World (which he finished just before he died and which is being published this month by Optimum).
The major difference between the two books is an epilogue in the second one in which Mr. LUNAN explains, more explicitly than ever before, that he acted "naively, stupidly and admittedly outside the law" in the "best interests of winning the war against Nazism." He also acknowledges that the GOUZENKO affair helped trigger the Cold War and he expresses regret that he "played a part in making it happen so soon."
Not a huge mea culpa by most definitions. Still, Mr. LUNAN did serve his time for betraying his country, however ineffectually and naively. Only this past summer, he received his Royal Canadian Mounted Police dossier and learned they had been keeping tabs on him until the mid-1970s.
David Gordon LUNAN was born in Kirkaldy, Scotland, in 1915. He died in hospital in Hawkesbury, Ontario, on October 3 after suffering a fall. He was 90. He is survived by his daughter Jan CONDLIN, two stepsons and their families.

  G... Names     GO... Names     GOU... Names     Welcome Home

GOUZENKO o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.globe_and_mail 2005-11-11 published
Week Of Remembrance: Ted BEAMENT, Brigadier And Lawyer (1908-2005)
Military strategist's final campaign was to be allowed to live in the same nursing home as his wife of 63 years
By Tom HAWTHORN, Special to The Globe and Mail, Friday, November 11, 2005, Page S7
He helped plan the Normandy invasion and the liberation of France and the Netherlands, but the final victory in a brilliant military career came at the age of 95 as he battled to be reunited with his wife.
Ted BEAMENT, a retired brigadier, was forced to live apart from Brenda, his Scottish war bride.
His room was in an Ottawa veterans' hospital, while she lived across town in another facility.
Their heartbreaking separation, detailed by the Ottawa Citizen in an article published on Valentine's Day last year, won the couple great sympathy. The BEAMENTs celebrated their 63rd wedding anniversary days later while still living at different addresses. They were able to visit only three times a week, while difficulties in hearing made telephone conversations frustrating.
"My mum is weepy and my dad is distressed," their daughter said at the time.
Mrs. BEAMENT was on a waiting list to join her husband at the Perley and Rideau Veterans' Health Centre, a delay that the family was told could last from six to 18 months.
Their plight led the War Amps of Canada to launch a national campaign to discover and reunite veterans unwillingly separated from their spouses.
After five months apart, the BEAMENTs were reunited at the Perley in March. They spent 15 precious weeks under the same roof before Mrs. BEAMENT died of causes related to old age. She was 91.
Mr. BEAMENT, who survived his wife by 15 months, enjoyed success in several arenas. He was a national champion as a figure skater, a first-class lawyer named king's counsel, and a decorated military strategist.
Family lore has it that Mr. BEAMENT was conceived in the summer of 1907 aboard a gondola afloat on the Grand Canal of Venice. His parents may well have had romantic notions regarding transportation, as they had met as members of the Bytown bicycle club.
Thomas Arthur BEAMENT was a prominent barrister who, in 1904, would be one of the 16 founding members of the Laurentian Club, formed by those businessmen excluded from other men's clubs because of their lack of social standing. Mr. BEAMENT's wife, Edith Louise BELFORD, had been orphaned at a young age and worked as typist in the civil service. George Edwin BEAMENT, known as Ted, was the youngest of their four children.
Educated at Ottawa Normal School and Lisgar Collegiate, the young man followed his father's demand that he attend Royal Military College, graduating in 1929. The yearbook noted the left sleeve of his cadet's uniform was not long enough to hold all his badges of distinction.
A degree in mechanical engineering was achieved at the University of Toronto two years later. He then attended Osgoode Hall, graduating in 1934, being called to the bar the same year. He was an associate in the family law firm of Beament and Beament.
It was as an engineering student that Mr. BEAMENT teamed with Elizabeth FISHER, Mary LITTLEJOHN and Hubert SPROTT to win the Canadian fours championship in figure skating at a meet at Winnipeg in February, 1930.
Mr. BEAMENT put aside his legal career with the outbreak of war in 1939. As commanding officer, he mobilized and led to England the 2nd (Ottawa) Field Battery, the famed Bytown Gunners whose members would see action at Dieppe and on D-Day. He even borrowed $2,000 from his father to outfit the men.
On Christmas Eve, 1940, he was a guest of a liaison officer for the British artillery who brought the Canadian officer to the family home in Oxford for a holiday meal. There, he met Brenda Yvonne Mary THOMS, a lithe, 27-year-old practitioner of the Dalcroze method of eurythmics, which intensifies the experience of music through movement and physical exertion. He proposed marriage the next day. Her polite rebuff did not deter such a persistent suitor. They married the following February, the bride wearing a silk wedding dress tailored from ivory-coloured curtains.
Many years later, a granddaughter, Ariana BRADFORD, questioned the brevity of the courtship. "Well, there was a war on, you know," Mr. BEAMENT replied. Two children would be born before the end of hostilities, neither, as far is known, conceived in a gondola.
A succession of command and staff appointments provided Ted BEAMENT with a series of promotions and ever greater responsibilities during the war. He was brigade major of the 1st Armoured Brigade in 1941; lieutenant-colonel and commanding officer of the 6th Canadian Field Regiment in 1942; general staff officer, grade 1, of the 4th Canadian Armoured Division, also in 1942; and, general staff officer, grade 1 (operations), of the First Canadian Army in 1943.
On November 14, 1943, he was appointed colonel (later brigadier), general staff, of the First Canadian Army. As such, he was intimately involved in the planning of the D-Day invasion of Normandy on June 6, 1944. He helped guide the liberation campaign through northwest Europe, during which Canadian forces often faced fierce resistance from German defenders.
In April, 1945, during the dying days of the Nazi regime, Mr. BEAMENT was based in the Netherlands when the headquarters of the First Canadian Army learned about a prison camp holding Polish women just across the frontier. The 1st (Polish) Armoured Division was ordered to free the inmates at Oberlangen. The camp was secured on April 12, Mr. BEAMENT's 37th birthday.
Back in England on September 27, Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery opened the Khaki University of Canada in the United Kingdom, an army-operated school on the outskirts of northwest London preparing servicemen for their demobilization. Mr. BEAMENT served as university president.
The king and queen visited the school the following year on the day before the president's fifth wedding anniversary. The queen was presented a bouquet of tulips by the president's young son.
Mr. BEAMENT was appointed an officer of the Order of the British Empire in 1943. His other awards for wartime service included a Croix de Guerre (avec Palme) from France and a Military Cross from Czechoslovakia. Mr. BEAMENT had assisted the Czechoslovak Brigade in Britain, for which he was also made a member of the Order of the White Lion. He was also mentioned in dispatches.
Returning to Canada in 1946, he rejoined the family law firm with brother Warwick BEAMENT, who had also been a brigadier with the Canadian Army in Europe. The reception was not quite as welcoming as he had imagined, as his father asked for repayment of the $2,000 loan. Worse, Mr. BEAMENT faced a large tax bill.
The tax appeal board rejected his position that he should not be taxed as a Canadian resident even though he had been overseas for more than five years. The storage of civilian clothes with his father and the ownership of a bank account and safety-deposit box, coupled with his intention to return to Canada, where taken as prove of residence. He then lost an appeal to the Exchequer Court in 1951.
Finally, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled in 1952 that "the appellant was physically absent from Canada" and should be taxed accordingly. BEAMENT v. the Minister of National Revenue benefited many returning veterans and the Income Tax Act was subsequently revised.
The family law firm became involved in one of the most sensational cases in the immediate postwar period, as Warwick BEAMENT acted as defence counsel in a spy trial following the defection of Soviet cipher clerk Igor GOUZENKO.
Two years after his brother's death in 1966, Ted BEAMENT moved his practice to Beament, Green, Dust until retiring at 86, by which time he had been made a life member of the Law Society of Upper Canada. He served from 1961 to 1966 as a commissioner for the National Capital Commission in Ottawa. His charitable work included high posts on behalf of the Red Cross, the local Young Men's-Young Women's Christian Association, and Ottawa's Community Chest. He was on the board of governors of Carleton University and was honorary governor of the Corps of Commissionaires.
Befitting his sterling war service, he served as honorary colonel of the 30th Field Artillery Regiment, as the amalgamated Bytown Gunners are now known.
Mr. BEAMENT was appointed a member of the Order of Canada in the waning days of 1986. The honour was conferred for his ardent support of charitable groups, most notably his 30 years of service on behalf of the Order of Saint John of Jerusalem, for which he was elected chancellor of the priory of Canada.
The successful campaign to reunite Mr. BEAMENT with his wife allowed him to be at her side as she breathed her last. Even in mourning, the retired brigadier remained a stickler for detail, ensuring the date of death was recorded as June 17, 2004, as his wife had passed 15 minutes before midnight. He had held her hand as she died.
Ted BEAMENT was born on April 12, 1908, in Ottawa. He died there on September 28. He was 97. He leaves a son, Justin BEAMENT, of Down Saint Mary, Devon, England; a daughter, Meriel BRADFORD, of Old Chelsea, Quebec; five grandchildren and four great-grand_sons. He was predeceased by his wife of 63 years, the former Brenda THOMS, who died last year. He was also predeceased by a sister, Ethel, and by brothers Warwick and Geoffrey.

  G... Names     GO... Names     GOU... Names     Welcome Home

GOUZENKO - All Categories in OGSPI