Lieutenant-Commander James Patrick "Hamish" Croal

1916 - 1985  (68 years)

• Name	James Patrick "Hamish" Croal
  Prefix	Lieutenant-Commander
  Born	20 Jul 1916	Galt (Cambridge), Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada   [1]
  Gender	Male
  Residence	1932	102 William St., Waterloo, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada
  Residence	1933	72 Union Blvd, Kitchener, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada
  Residence	1936	29 Roland St., Kitchener, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada
  Died	13 Jan 1985	Ottawa, Carleton Co., Ontario, Canada   [1]
  Hall of Fame - Waterloo Region	Bef 2012	, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada   [2]
  Military	WW2
  Eby ID Number	Waterloo-146920P
  Buried	Saint John's Anglican Church Cemetery, Port Hope, Northumberland Co., Ontario   [1]
  Person ID	I146920	Generations
  Last Modified	3 Mar 2025

  
  

  Father	David Thomson Croal,   b. 1889, Edinburgh, Midlothian, Scotland ,   d. 22 Dec 1940  (Age 51 years)
  Mother	Isabel Scott Steel,   b. 28 May 1892, Edinburgh, Midlothian, Scotland ,   d. 5 Mar 1932, Waterloo Ave., Cambridge, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada  (Age 39 years)
  Married	18 Sep 1915	Galt (Cambridge), Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada
  Family ID	F54171	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

• Notes

  James (Hamish) Patrick Croal was born in Galt (Cambridge) and educated in Scotland. He joined the Merchant Marine before the start of WWII, enlisted as an Ordinary Seaman and earned his commission in 1944. Following the War, Croal pushed back Canada's Arctic frontiers. He was appointed Naval Observer for Exercise Muskox, the Canadian Army's cold weather training project. As a civilian with the Defence Research Board in Churchill, Manitoba, he studied ice conditions, behavior of vehicles and appropriate clothing and rations for military and scientific personnel operating in the Arctic. In 1948 he was a Canadian observer on American led expeditions to the Arctic when drilling tests were done for the construction of the Distant Early Warning (DEW) Line radar sites. This work resulted in Croal receiving a personnel commendation from the United States of America Secretary of the Navy. In 1949, Croal joined the permanent force of the Royal Canadian Navy and was assigned to test survival equipment north of Churchill. He was on HMCS Labrador in 1954 when it became the first Canadian icebreaker to sail through the Northwest Passage, subsequently circumnavigating North America via the Panama Canal. He trained Canadian Army instructors in survival techniques and was a Defence Research Board consultant in a 1959 study of sea ice. In retirement Croal continued to work for the Defence Research Board in Ottawa, was a consultant to the Department of the Environment and to the Arctic Institute of Canada to which he was inducted as a Fellow. The Waterloo Region Hall of Fame

  
  

• Sources

  [S3231] Find A Grave, James Patrick Croal (1916 - 1985) - Find A Grave Memorial. (2017). Findagrave.com. Retrieved 25 June 2017, from https://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GSln=Croal&GSfn=James&GSbyrel=all&GSdyrel=all&GScntry=10&GSob=n&GRid=170682200&df=all&. [S220] Waterloo Region Hall of Fame Waterloo Region Hall of Fame.

  
  

• Event Map

  Born - 20 Jul 1916 - Galt (Cambridge), Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada Residence - 1932 - 102 William St., Waterloo, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada Residence - 1933 - 72 Union Blvd, Kitchener, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada Residence - 1936 - 29 Roland St., Kitchener, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada Died - 13 Jan 1985 - Ottawa, Carleton Co., Ontario, Canada Hall of Fame - Waterloo Region - Bef 2012 - , Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada Buried - - Saint John's Anglican Church Cemetery, Port Hope, Northumberland Co., Ontario  = Link to Google Earth