achievement, with Mrs. Montague MacKay as co—ordinator, was truly impressive. Individual feats such as that of Mrs. Ira Clark who, by April ’1941,'had knitted 100 pairs of socks and 4 of mitts for the organi— zation, and group efforts of the type of the “Carry on Canada Concerts” enabled this indispensable work to be continued throughout the war. The Villagers, particularly the school children, gave enthusiastic support to the various salvage drives for such items as bones, needed for the production of glycerine for explosives; magazines, required for reading material in the military camps; and the glass, tin foil, waste paper and scrap iron which assured the factories a steady supply of raw materials. Nor were the Greeks, starving on the far—away Aegean Islands, nor the Russians, fleeing for their lives before the German hordes, and others similarly circumstanced, ignored in the various campaigns for funds con- ducted on their behalf. And with such brutal news items as that of 500 Athenians dying daily from starvation constantly before them, all Islanders endured the relatively light rationing of scarce items, such as gasoline, sugar, tea, coffee and meat with a minimum of grumbling.

During the grim first years of the war, it was believed that the prospect of an enemy attack on the Atlantic seaboard was more than a possibility. Using the Home Guard of England as an example, the auth— orities therefore appealed to every man “no matter who he is or what his age or occupation” for two or three nights a week of his time, plus a few weekends and a short period in camp each year. The Mount Stewart volunteers found themselves in “C” Squadron of the 17th Armoured Re— giment and, in due course, were issued uniforms and rifles. They often drilled in the school yard after the day’s work in the fields and fishing boats had ended. It is believed that the Guard was placed on alert only once, on the occasion of unprecedented u-boat activity in the Gulf waters.

The wail of the “banshee” was heard throughout the Island when the Civilian Defence Committee (ARP) inaugurated a series of prac- tice blackouts, signalled by some 40 sirens located in various centers in the Province. All lights were to be sheilded from exterior View, and wardens were appointed to ensure that the regulations were observed. A related service was performed by the members of the Aircraft De— tection Corps who reported the passage of all aircraft, except those de— finitely known to be local, to ADC headquarters. Chief observers in the Mount Stewart area were Ralph Pigot, Savage Harbour and Fred Smith, Mount Stewart.

Relating the heroic action of Islanders on the battlefields of Eur- ope, Major Al Rogers observed in 1944 that “when our armed forces march down the main street of Berlin, they will be accompanied by a little company of Islanders. They will be invisible to their buddies, but they will be there. Our lads who died.” Memorial services were held in St. John’s United Church on September 28, 1941 for Sgt. Pilot John Andrew MacEachern who had been reported killed in action in Scotland some days previously. A few minutes before his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Stewart MacEachern, received the cable bearing the sad news, another had arrived advising that his brother, Ernest, had been rescued after his ship had been torpedoed. Rescue was not, however, the good for- tune of Arthur Andrew MacDonald, son of Mrs. John C. MacDonald of Mount Stewart, whose ship the destroyer, “Ottawa,” was sent to the bottom by a Germon torpedo in September of 1942 with a loss of 113 lives. In all, thirteen men from the Mount Stewart area perished dur— aifg the 1939-1945 hostilities, as compared with eight during the Great

ar.

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