VE3BF Alfred's Home Page

Alfred was born on a farm in Hillier, Prince Edward County, Ontario. Moved to Wellington, Ontario and grew up there. Left Wellington to join the navy. Had to get a medical in a nearby town, then another one in Toronto before he was shipped out to BC where he had a third one in BC. Alfred joined up for 7 years, however due to medical problems he was out before his time.

In 1940 Alfred joined the Royal Canadian Navy in British Columbia. After a six month training period, he was at sea on the Prince Robert , an Armed Merchant Cruiser plying the sea lanes of the Pacific Ocean

HMCS Prince Robert

For more information on the Prince Robert click on the Photo above.

His travels in the service took him to Hawaii, Fiji Islands ( home base), Australia and New Zealand with many trips north of the equator and return running escort service for Aussie and New Zealand ships. Later they crossed over to the Easter Islands, on to Peru and down and up the west coast of South America and back to British Columbia.

Two years later Alfred was at the Queen Charlotte Islands for additional training, then to Alaska on escort duties again. Halifax was next on the list for more training, from there to Scotland on the troopship Andes.

HMCS Chaudiere 1

HMCS Chaudière (I) and her crew were involved in the sinking of German U-Boats on four separate occasions. On March 5th- 6th she took part in sinking the U 744, July 6th with the Ottawa and Statice she sank U 678 off Beachy Head, then on August 18 and 20th collaborated with Ottawa and Kootenay in sinking of U621 and U984. Click on the above photo of the HMCS Chaudiere for more information on these actions.

Chaudiere 1

HMCS Chaudiere 1 Looking down the starboard side

Next he was on the Destroyer Escort Chaudiere for a couple of years sailing in the north Atlantic, visiting England, Ireland, the Azores and sent to Iceland to see if they could salvage anything from the HMCS Skeena, which had been wrecked in a storm, and grounded near Reykjavik, 25 Oct 44

Newfoundland was another place in Alfred's travels and yet another course in Scotland aboard the Ottawa from which he was drafted to the Crusader, a Battle Class Destroyer.

HMCS Crusader

The Crusader took him to the Azores, to the West Indies, Jamaica through the Panama Canal back to the Pacific Ocean and up the west coast of North America back to Esquimalt, British Columbia from where his naval journey had begun.

After leaving the Navy, Alfred worked for some time at Stelco, Hamilton, Ontario in Electrical Repair. From Stelco he went to Hamilton Hydro, where he worked for 35 years in the Metering Department.

Since leaving the Navy, Alfred has toured most of Europe, including Germany, Spain, Monaco and Italy

Alfred at the Coliseum in Rome (ouch!)

Alfred has visited most countries in Central America as well in his travels.

Six or seven visits to Australia, on one where he went around the continent starting at Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Hobart Tasmania, Perth, Darwin and to Brisbane. He toured around each of the places he visited taking in all the sights.

Alfred in Australia, Ron took Alfred to see the replica of Captain Cook's ship, the Endeavour.

On another trip he visited Samoa and Tahiti with a trip to Hong Kong as well, but to top it all off, Alfred took a trip around the world heading for London where he spent time with relatives, then

Alfred aboard the Discovery at Princess Point in London

on to Singapore, New Zealand, Norfolk Island, Sydney, Hawaii, Vancouver and finally back home to Hamilton. One could say he is a world traveler and perhaps his stint in the navy got him interested in traveling all over the world