David Thomson Croal

Other Events:

• Interesting: military, honoured, story
• Name: D. T. Croal
• Eby ID Number: Waterloo-190156
• Occupation: 1915, Roseville, North Dumfries Twp., Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada; farmer
• 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

Notes:

A Kitchener Knight: Augie Herchenratter's wartime valour earns him France's highest honour Nov. 5

I have been following The Record's series on local soldiers who fought in the First World War.

I think of the veterans in my own family with pride: my grandfather, David Thomson Croal, was one of those local heroes who came to Canada and then returned to his home country of Scotland to fight for our freedom. My father, Ken Croal, was a Second World War veteran who signed on with the Forestry Corps; and my mother, Lillian Croal, served in England in the Women's Auxiliary Air Force.

It was the Wednesday article on Second World War veteran Augie Herchenratter that moved me as I picked up the morning paper. What a fearless brave young man he was to carry out the mission given to him after many of his comrades had fallen to press on to free the French town of Buron. Finally, he has received the medal and recognition he so well deserved.

As Remembrance Day approaches, when we see veterans, we should shake their hand and thank them for their sacrifices fighting for our freedom. We should stand at the cenotaph and remember those who fell in the fight. The First World War veterans are long gone and Second World War veterans are dwindling as they succumb to old age. It is important to remember their stories, their courage and bravery. Lest we forget.


Stephanie Croal, Cambridge

Remember the stories of our veterans | TheRecord.com. (2014). TheRecord.com. Retrieved 25 June 2017, from https://www.therecord.com/opinion-story/4976622-remember-the-stories-of-our-veterans/

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Westmount Golf and Country Club opened its greens to members in the summer of 1931. The late W.R. (Bill) Bricker was the first Club Captain, Mr. Cammy Seagram the first Club Champion (and repeated several times in the following years), and Mr. David Croal the first professional.

Westmount Golf & Country Club : Golf Canada. (2017). Ch.golfcanada.ca. Retrieved 25 June 2017, from https://ch.golfcanada.ca/?course=westmount-golf-country-club

David married Isabel Scott Steel 18 Sep 1915, Galt (Cambridge), Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada. Isabel was born 28 May 1892, Edinburgh, Midlothian, Scotland; died 5 Mar 1932, Waterloo Ave., Cambridge, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada; was buried , Mount View Cemetery, Cambridge, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada. [Group Sheet]

David — Irene Busch. [Group Sheet]

Other Events:

• Military: WW2
• Eby ID Number: Waterloo-146920P
• 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
• Hall of Fame - Waterloo Region: Bef 2012, , Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada

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

Other Events:

• Eby ID Number: Waterloo-190167

Alexander — Lillian Joan Smith. Lillian was born 1920, , Yorkshire, England; died 17 Nov 2014, Cambridge, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada. [Group Sheet]