Remembrance
THE GRAND RIVER SACHEM      November 7, 1984     Page 10
Bill Winegard remembers
By Gregory A, Crone
Remembrance Day is a time for all of us
to recall the sacrifices made by others on our behalf. For the veterans who served in the wars, this day holds special meaning
One local veteran who will be remember-ing on this date is William Winegard Sr. As a veteran of two world wars and two bran ches of the armed forces, the story of Mr. Winegard's service to his country is the history of Canada at war.
Mr. Winegard is 84 years old, or as he likes to say, he is "as old as the century." In the summer of 1915, the First World War, or as it was known then, the Great War, was already well underway.
Mr. Winegard, then only 15 years old, was eager to join the auction Lying about his age, Mr, Winegard enlisted in the army in July of 1915 in his hometown of Coll-ingwood. By the fall he was in England and by January of 1916, his basic training was complete.
Mr. Winegard was sent to France as part |of the reinforcements for the 21st infantry battalion. He was soon involved in some of the fiercest bloodiest battle known to man Men with rifles and bayonets fought for months over the same slippery, muddy plot of land under the harshest of conditions
In March of 1916, in the midst of a bloody offensive, Mr. Winegard was wounded. "We were getting in from the left, from the right, and from the front," said Mr. Winegard. "My old buddies were going down all around me, and then I caught one.
Mr. Winegard, wounded in the leg, was carried from the field by stretcher bearers to an aid station. His leg swelling from the wound, he finally reached a hospital and was examined by doctors
"There was a young nurse with a Scotch accent who was taking care of me," said Mr Winegard "I heard the doctors tell her to prepare me for amputation, and they would remove my leg in the morning."
The nurse wouldn't give up on me," said Mr Winegard. "She put hot compresses on my leg from nine a.m. to nine the next morning.
Finally the swelling went down and the blood poisoning cleared up. When the doctors came for me in the morning they were amazed they didn't have to operate. That nurse saved my leg."
"I was only 16, so I guess that helped," said Mr. Winegard.
"Mr. Winegard spent the next five months 
recuperating in a Canadian Red Cross hospital in Buckinghamshire. His actual age eventually came out.
"They wouldn't let me go back to France, but they gave me the option of joining 
the Boy's Brigade," said Mr. Winegard. "I wouldn't have any of that, so I went home."
Back home in Collingwood, Mr. Winegard started working on getting his leg back in shape and started thinking about ways to get back into the war. "At the end of December, one of the hotel owner's boys came in wearing a brand new sailor's uniform," said Mr. Winegard. "I asked him where he got the uniform and he told me the British Navy was looking for sailors for their minesweepers."
Mr. Winegard was off to Toronto to visit the naval recruitment office. "I told them
I wanted to join," said Mr. Winegard.
Mr. and Mrs. Bill Winegard snuggle up for a photo.
"...I don't want to die in this crazy country. I'm going home."
"They asked, 'how old are you?' I said I was 18. I guess that's the second time I lied."
Before he could sign up, Mr. Winegard had to pass the hurdle of a medical examination. 
"The doctor examined me and asked me what happened to my leg?" said Mr. Winegard. "I told him I tripped while skating, another fello fell over me, and the blade cut my leg. The doctor said, 'that's a pretty good story.' That was the third time I lied." Mr. Winegard became a stoker in the engine room of a British minesweeper. "It was our job to keep the shiplanes free of mines," said Mr. Winegard. "We might
take 50 a day, then turn around and take 20 more in the same stretch of water."
Eventually, Mr. Winegard wassigned to some of the first ships commissioned in the Canadian Navy, - Canadian Drifter, or CD boats. He spent the last part of the war in the water around what was then British West Africa, where he contracted malaria and dysentry.
"I had gone from 170 lbs. to just under 90 lbs., a stretcher case, lying in an African Hospital," said Mr. Winegard. "A doctor came in and gave me a poke, and said, 'you're a pretty tough boy, you should be dead.' I said, 'Doc, I don't want to die in
this crazy country. I'm going home.' That is when he told me the war was over."
In 1939, with the advent of another war, Mr. Winegard was restless again. "I had a crack at the army, and a crack at the navy, so I figured I'd try the airforce," said Mr, Winegard.
Mr. Winegard presented himself at the James Street recruiting station in Hamilton.
His age was once again a problem, but this time, having just turned 40 years old, he was now too old.
Turned down by the airforce, Mr. Winegard applied to return to the Navy. They immediately sent him a telegram granting 
him his old rank of petty officer and orders to report immediately to Halifax. "I guess I should have gone to them in the first place," he said.
Mr. Winegard spent much of his time as a diesel mechanic keepinga squadron of-Fairmiles, in working order. These were small ships that carried an anti-submarine depth charge and a small forward gun. With German submarines patrolling the Gulf of St. Lawrence, these small ships were often all that stood between them and the vital convoy ships that took supplies to Britain.
Towards the end of the war, Mr. Winegard suffered a rupture while lifting a heavy cylinder head and laying him up in the hospital. "One day the doctor came in and said to me that I must be a pretty important 
fellow," said Mr. Winegard. "I said no, I was just a mechanic. The doctor said he had received three messages from the Navy wanting to know when Chief Winegard could return to duty. It turned out that three Fairmiles had blown their engines an they wanted me to get back and fix them."
Six medals on his chest
On Remembrance Day Mr. Winegard will wear six medals on his chest. He has a Victory medal and a Service medal for his First World War army service, two more for his First World War navy service, and two more for his service in the navy during the Second World War.
Mr. Winegard's service in two wars and two different branches of the service was more than any one man could be expected to do for his country, yet he felt compelled to serve. "If a country is worth living in, it's worth fighting for," said Mr. Winegard. "That's the way my family brought me up."
Mr. Winegard paid tribute to his family who supported him while he was away at war and helped him to recover when he returned. "I wouldn't be alive at all if not for my wife and my boys," said Mr Winegard. "We've been married 63 years and she's been a wonderful, wonderful wife."
The man who has seen so much war believes efforts should be made to make sure there are no more. "There's other places in the world, like Ethiopia, where they're starving," said Mr. Winegard "Even in Canada there are places that need help. That's where they should spend money, not on wars."
On Remembrance Day, Mr. Winegard will remember the ones who did not come back. "Every boy I joined up with is still over there. They were all killed," said Mr. Winegard. "It's hard to forget. You have to remember."