Taber area men were P.O.W.’s during World War II


BY KAREN INGRAM For the Taber Irrigation Impact Museum


There were at least four men from the Taber area that spent a good portion of WWII in prisoner of war camps. Samuel Dunn: Served with the Calgary Tank Regiment, 2nd Division.He took part in the Dieppe Raid on Aug. 19, 1942.Of the 4,961 Canadians there,900 were killed, 2,000 taken prisoner after a bloody nine hours of fighting. Samuel was taken prisoner.He had been shot in the chest. He experienced the grim life of a P.O.W.and was shackled for one year,44 days and 45 minutes.The Canadians were called – “Children of glory in an ordeal of fire”. When liberat-


ed by the Americans he was skin and bones. Arthur Graydon Ingram: Served with the 424 Squadron of the R.C.A.F. On Jan. 23, 1943, on his first bombing mission over France his plane was shot down and of the crew of six, three were killed or not accounted for and he was taken prisoner.Graydon was first placed in Dalag-Luft then taken to Stalag 8B then to Camp 344.He was a P.O.W. for 27 months and took part in the Forced March, called the “Death March”.He was liberated on March 12, 1945 by General Patton’s Army.Graydon was entered into the silkworm club posthumously, as having survived because of his parachute.


Graydon Ingram


Pictures on left: After WWII ended,the Canadian Armed Forces had POW and other armed services buildings in Medicine Hat and Lethbridge that had been deemed surplus and were being sold off at a reasonable cost with the purchaser being responsible to move these. The South Side School started as an Air Force building from Medicine Hat moved here in 1949,remodeled into three classrooms with three additional classrooms added in 1951.When Rogers Sugar started to build the factory here in 1948, they purchased and moved in several of these surplus build- ings to be used as construction offices, kitchen and dining rooms for work- ers and dormitory style accommodations for some of the workers. In 1956, the Lions club purchased two buildings from the POW camp in Lethbridge and used them as a start for the Taber Community Centre. Picture below: Building being moved into Taber,it had been barged up the Oldman and then trucked up the hill and into Taber to be placed.


22 - insight magazine june 2020


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