JACK YEO

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jack served overseas from October; 1941 until Octobet; 1945. He fought in the Italian campaign and also in Belgium, Holland, and Germany.

A Sentimental Memory

(September 1941)

This is a sentimental memory I want to share about my friends of the Lot 16 United Church, which I attended from the time I was a young boy. Injune, 1941, at the age of twenty- one, I voluntarily joined the army. After my basic training in Charlottetown, I was stationed in Petawawa, Ontario. Prior to my departure overseas in October, 1941, to go to war, I was given a ten-day furlough to return to PEI to say “Good-bye” to my Mom, Dad, brothers and sisters, as well as my many friends in the Lot 16 United Church.

While home on leave, I attended a church service at Lot 16 United. At the end of the service, the minister, Rev. Christie, asked the congregation to remain seated. Sensing what might be going to take place, and fearful about my emotions show- ing, I got up from the pew and started to go outside. However, I remember one of the boys, Bill Miller, coming and taking me back in and up to the front of the church. After saying a few words and wishing me well, he presented me with a pen and pencil set. At this presentation, the tears rolled down my face and I couldn’t express my appreciation for the gift. So, this is my chance to say “Thank you”. I didn’t have the luxury of being able to carry many personal possessions but I cherished that pen and pencil set, and it came with me in my travels through the United Kingdom, Continental Europe and Cen- tral Mediterranean area. It wrote many a letter back to my family in Lot 16 assuring them that both my brother, James, and I were still alive and well. So the thank you I could not orally say in 1941 is now sixty years later, in 2001, being expressed in print. I can only hope that in 1941 the apprecia- tion I could not verbally express was shown by the tears rolling down my face. A belated “Thank you” to my many friends of the Lot 16 United Church.”

(Gunner) Jack Alton Yeo

World War II Veteran

LOT 16 UNITED CHURCH AND ITS PEOPLE