Two grinning young men in navy dress stand beside a gun turret in an old black and white photo.
To their right someone has painted “Canada or bust” on the barrel of the weapon, while to their left the words “It’s no use, Adolf,” seemingly fall from the sky onto a fearful-looking caricature of Nazi German Chancellor Adolf Hitler.
Below the photo, someone has scrawled “HMCS Summerside” in white marker onto the black surface of the album page.
There are pages of photos like this. Young men posing with ships, weapons or just with an arm thrown around the shoulder of a fellow sailor. There are scenic photos of busy ports, along with submarines, destroyers and aircraft carriers, many with “Gibraltar” and their country of origin written in the margins around them.
One page holds a portrait of a smiling young man in a sailor’s uniform, underneath which is written, “Paul Herbert, LDG Seaman, HMCS Summerside, K141, WW2.”
The album of photos belonged to Herbert, who apparently served aboard the Flower Class Corvette namesake of this city, HMCS Summerside, during the Second World War.
The album as a whole represents a snapshot of life aboard the warship, which was built and launched in Quebec City in 1941, and served in the North Atlantic and Mediterranean theatres of the war.
Herbert’s photos ended up in a museum in Ontario, where they eventually came into the possession of Dave Hiorth of Military Antiques Toronto. He recently had it listed for sale on eBay.ca and his company’s website, www.militaryantiquestoronto.com.
The album is a great find, said Hiorth, as it was relatively rare for Canadian sailors to have access to a camera or film while serving.
“You find all the American (albums) you could ever wish for – but Canadian ones? They don’t really turn up. It wasn’t popular for us to have cameras and take pictures, truthfully, whereas the Americans took tonnes of pictures.
“The whole thing is interesting, truthfully, because it’s from Operation Torch, because it’s Canadian Navy and because it’s full of photos from the guy – that just makes it so unique.”
Operation Torch was the Allied invasion of North Africa in 1942.
Since listing the album for sale and being contacted by the Journal Pioneer, Hiorth has found a buyer for the item, a collector living in Nova Scotia.
Greg Gallant, curator of the P.E.I. Regiment Museum in Charlottetown, said the album is indeed a rare find and is something he’d love to add to the museum’s collection. There is not much in its collection related to the Second World War-era HMCS Summerside.
Gallant suspects he knows who is purchasing the album from Hiorth, and he knows that person well. He’s hopeful they might be able to come to an agreement and he can bring the album home, so to speak.
“I’m always on the hunt for stuff from P.E.I., whether it be Summerside, Charlottetown or anything,” he said.
@JournalPMacLean
