harbordite issue 71

THE HARBORDITE

Last November, We Remembered...

Inside this issue:

Editorial 2

Remember-ance Day, Cover Story

3

Harbord’s 3 Lost Soldiers

6

WWII Remem-berance Story

11

Commencement 14

Grads Gives Thanks

19

Looking For-ward To...

35

Happy New Year, fellow Harbordites! Its 2015 al-ready! 2014 flew by so fast!

I’d like to take this oppor-tunity to say how it was an honour to be part of the Harbord Rememberance Day ceremony this past Novem-ber. To honour the fallen Harbord Students who gave their lives up for our coun-try’s freedom at such a young age, was ever so mov-ing. This year’s service was amazing as we discovered three more of our own Har-bordites who gave their ulti-mate sacrifice.

I was impressed when I saw everyone gather outside to pay their respects. I felt the unity of all Harbordites and guests that morning and was very proud to be a part of the Harbord family once again.

I would like to announce that this will be the last Harbordite in its traditional semi-annual format. After this issue, the Harbordite will become a shorter more timely web-based magazine, It will also be published as an online monthly publica-tion.

I look forward to hearing

your feedback.

-Ben

Editorial: Message from Co-Editor

- Ben Lee (‘78)

Remembrance Day Presentation at Harbord C.I.

Cover Story!

A gathering of Harbordites surrounding our World War I memorial on Rememberance Day 2014.

Remembrance Day Presentation at Harbord C.I.

Cover Story! - Continued...

Left Photo: From Left to Right, Sapper Joseph De Ponte, Major (ret) Michael Boire, Piper Douglas Clark, Corporal (ret) William Davis, Harbord Principal Vince Mead and Sergeant (ret) William Carlisle, President of the Toronto Black Watch Association

Right Photo: On left, Great niece, Mrs. Evelyn Martin and on right, Great-great niece, Ms. Maria Harri-son, of Lt. Myer Tutzer Cohen M.C. laying down his wreath.

Harbord students lay-ing down poppies in memory of the fallen soldiers who were Harbordites.

Continued...

Left Photo: Syd Moscoe speask to the crowd prior to hearing the wonderful sounds of the Harbord choir.

Right Photo: The “New” addition of the three names to our World War I memorial.

Harbord’s 3 Lost Soldiers - The Back Story

by Syd Moscoe

name for the annual year-book) and “The Happy Ghosts of Harbord” that over 500 students and staff of Harbord enlisted and served in the First World War but we only had information for about 460.

The newspaper article did refer to the fact that Lt. Cohen and his family lived at 588 Huron Street which was then and still is in Har-bord’s attendance area.

We have been informed that if no other evidence is available, it is accepted that facts of residence, schooling and dates of death as reported in a newspaper are accepted as primary proof of those facts.

The Directors of the Har-bord Club took the matter under consideration and de-cided it would be a good idea to investigate the pos-sibility of adding Lt. Co-hen’s name to “Our Sol-dier”. There was a space on the west side of the monu-ment. It appeared that when the monument was first designed space was left on both the east and west side for an additional plaque. At sometime in the past, the space on the east side had a plaque added.

With the help of Mr. David Sowerbutts, the Chief Ar-

HARBORD’S THREE LOST SOLDIERS – THE BACK STORY

It all started in the fall of 2013. The Harbord Club re-ceived an email from Mr. Earl Chapman, Archivist of the Royal Highland Regi-ment (RHR) of Canada, also known as The Black Watch, 48th Highlanders. He sent a copy of a news item from the Toronto Daily Star, dated November 17, 1917, informing of the death of Lt. Myer Tutzer Cohen, on the battlefield, who was awarded the Military Cross posthumously. The article referred to Lt. Cohen hav-ing attended Harbord Col-legiate Institute before enlisting in the Canadian Army to fight in the First World War. Mr. Chapman inquired as to whether we had any records to confirm Lt. Cohen’s attendance at Harbord. Lt. Cohen’s name was not on Harbord’s list of those who served in the First World War.

Unfortunately, TDSB does not retain school records for more than 50 years. A search of what records we have in our Museum did not elicit any other infor-mation. We do know from articles written in old Har-bord Reviews (the original

chivist of the TDSB , we were put in touch with Mr. Brett Da-vis of the Age of Bronze , a metal work artisan. He came and looked over the existing plaques. He informed us that he could design and manufacture a bronze plaque to match the col-our and letter size of the ex-isting plaques and it would be similar in shape and size to the plaque that had been added to the east side of the monument. As Bret informed us, the let-ters of the original plaques were created in 1921 and as the moulds for those letters were no longer available he would have to make , not only the plaque from scratch but also all the letters for Lt. Cohen’s name.

We were quoted a price of $2034.00 and the same was paid by the Harbord Club in May and Bret commenced his work.

In order to assist in covering some of the cost and have the students feel a sense of partic-ipation , Belinda Medeiros-Felix, a Harbord Director and Harbord Staff member ap-proached the Prom Committee. They agreed that $1.00 from each Prom ticket sold would go to sharing in the cost of the plaque. And so $215.00 was raised by the Class of 2014 and received by the Harbord Club with thanks.

In June, I was in Montreal and

me that with three names he would have to start all over again. He would have to de-stroy what he had done. The process requires that he makes a sand mock-up, a mould from that which he sends to the foundry where it is cast in bronze. It then comes back to him for polish-ing and patinating –a form of protective coating . He hoped it would be ready on time. Plan “B” was that if it was not ready he would have the mockup in place for the Re-membrance Day ceremony.

In the interim we learned from Mr. Chapman, that there were direct family de-scendants of Lt. Cohen, Mrs. Evelyn Martin of Kitchener , a great-niece as well as her daughter Maria Harrison , a great-great niece. Unfortu-nately were unable to find any direct descendants of Lt Curry or Lt. Col. Irving.

The next step was to create a program for a Remem-brance Day service. Though Harbord conducts such a service every year, it has not been since 2007, when we rededicated a refreshed and restored “Our Soldier”, that we had a service outside. We contacted Mr. William Car-lisle , President of The To-ronto Black Watch Associa-tion , who readily agreed to

Continued...

had an opportunity to visit Sts. Andrew & Paul Presby-terian Church, the home church of the RHR , 48th Highlanders, and as well , the 48th Highlanders Ar-moury. The main window of the Church is dedicated to the Regiment and contains (in part) a figure of a sol-dier in kilts with the Jewish Star of David over his right shoulder. The soldier is Lt. Myer Tutzer Cohen. In the Armoury I visited the Of-ficers’ Mess and there in their highest place of hon-our was a photo of our lost Soldier, Lt. Cohen. We now have a copy of that photo . It will be placed on our web-site and eventually in our Hall of Memories.

When I returned to Toron-to, an email was waiting for me from Ms. Fiona Smith , the archivist at St.Andrews Presbyterian Church , King & Simcoe Streets, here in To-ronto.

She informed me that her church was in the process of honouring First World War soldiers who gave their lives. She came across the name of Lt. Walter Howard Curry.

The records she was able to obtain and which she for-warded to us established that Lt. Curry had indeed attended Harbord before going on to University and

then enlisting in the Canadian Army.

I then contacted Bret and told him we had another name to be added to the plaque he was creating. As there were now two names he would have to adjust the spacing so he start-ed over again.

As school started up again in September, Belinda also an ad-visor to the SAC, approached the SAC regarding participat-ing in sharing the cost of the new plaque.

After some discussion, the SAC, led by President Andre Roy, agreed that $1.00 from each student’s SAC fees would be donated to the Harbord Club to help defray the cost of the plaque. And so the stu-dents raised $1113.00 for which many thanks.

Later in September we re-ceived an email from a media firm working on a documentary for TVO . They inquired about Lt. Col.Thomas Craik Irving, D.S.O., who from the records they had and which they pro-vided to us, had attended Har-bord before going on to the University of Toronto and then enlisting in the Canadian Army Engineers. And now we had a third lost Harbord soldier found.

I contacted Bret again. It was now late September. He told

assisting in the programming and protocol. Through his ef-forts we were able to obtain the services of Douglas Clark as our piper and as well Sap-per Joseph Da Ponte of the 32nd Combat Regiment to at-tend to represent Lt. Col. Thomas Irving. Ms. Fiona Smith would represent Lt. Curry , while Mrs. Evelyn Mar-tin and her daughter Maria Harrison would represent Lt. Cohen.

Two special representatives whom Mr. Carlisle brought along to the service were retired Major Michael Boire, C.D., who presently teaches at the Royal Military College in Kingston , Ontario , and re-tired Corporal William Davis , a veteran of the Second World War. Major Boire spoke at the service. Sapper Da Ponte (age 21) and Cor-poral Davis (age 92) had something in common, both were grads of our neighbour school, Central Tech.

Mr. Arnold Witt , vice-principal, led a team of teach-ers including , Mr. Daniel Le-blanc, Mr. Aaron Magney, Ms. Karen Beutler, Ms. Barbara Martin and Ms. Renata Todros in working out the logistics of how to get all the students into place, when and what music and songs would played during the service. Mr. Car-lisle advised as to the order and timing of the service.


by Syd Moscoe - Continued…

In the meantime, while all the meetings were taking place, and the students re-hearsing, we worried and wondered about the progress of the plaque. On the Thurs-day before Remembrance Day, we received a telephone call from Bret Davis that he had just received the plaque , had finished the patination and would be installing it the next day. No need for a Plan B.

Unfortunately , as Bret told us later, the granite of the monument was so hard he broke his drill bit and was unable to buy one any where in the neighbourhood and so he returned Monday Novem-ber 10th, to complete the in-stallation. At this point, Art teacher Mr. Ross and his crew of artists prepared a cover of black cloth and at-tached it to the monument to cover the plaque which cloth would be removed dur-ing the service by the repre-sentatives of our three lost soldiers.

November 11 dawned sunny and bright with a welcome temperature of 16C. The en-

tire student body moved into their assigned places with military precision. The band hung out in the foyer of the auditorium while the choirs took their place on the steps leading to the auditorium. Mr. Magney and his crew in-

stalled a public address sys-tem to bring sound to assem-bled.

Mr. Vince Meade, Principal, welcomed all. I, Syd Moscoe acted as Chair. Manuel Fer-reira, a staff member, han-dled the flag honours. Gabriel Dunk-Gifford, a Grade 12 stu-dent, handled the trumpet honours.

After the opening remarks , the plaque with the names of Harbord’s three lost soldiers was unveiled. For Lt. Myer Tutzer Cohen were, Corporal (ret) William Davis, Ma-jor(ret)Michael, C.D., Ser-geant (ret)William Carlisle, representing The Black Watch Association of Toronto and Mrs. Evelyn Martin and Ms. Maria Harrison. For Lt. Walter Howard Curry was Ms. Fiona Smith, and for Lt. Col. Walter Craik Irving, D.S.O., was Sapper Joseph Da Ponte, 32nd Combat Regiment. The covering was removed by Cor-poral (ret)William Carlisle and Sapper Joseph Da Ponte in the appropriate military fash-ion and later handed to Syd Moscoe to be placed in the Harbord Museum.

At 11:00 am Gabriel Dunk-Gifford played Taps while Mr. Manuel Ferreira lowered the flag to half-mast and two minutes of silence was ob-served. The end of the silence was sounded with Revielle played by Gabriel after which

...Continued

the Piper Mr. Douglas Clark played.

Following a musical interlude nine wreaths were presented and laid at the foot of monu-ment in the name of and by:

1. The Black Watch Associa-tion by Messrs. Davis, Boire and Carlisle;

2. Lt Myer Tutzer Cohen, M.C. by Mrs. Martin and Ms.Harrison;

3. Lt. Walter Howard Curry by Ms.Smith and a student;

4. Lt. Col. Thomas Craik Irving, D.S.O. by Sapper Joseph Da Ponte;

5. Harbord Staff-Past & Pre-sent- Mr. Daniel Leblanc & Ms. Belinda Medeiros –Felix; Ms. Janice Gladstone and Mr. Dan-iel LeBlanc

6. The Harbord Charitable Foundation by Harvey Man-del(HCI-1964) and Abby

Gopsill(HCI-2016);

7. The Harbord Club by Ben Lee (HCI-1978), Sidney Ingham(HCI-1978) and Sierra

Medeiros – Felix (HCI-2010);

8. The Students of Harbord Collegiate by Andre Roy-President SAC; Mara Jezernik – Sr. Vice-Presdient SAC; and William Xu-Jr, Vice-President-SAC;

9. The Harbord Club Museum Volunteers by Kira Knight and Cameron McGlade Bouchard.

The choirs presented two num-bers accompanied by the elec-tronic piano.

The program ended with the singing of O Canada. To the sound of the piper playing , the Grade 10 students entered the Hall of Memories and placed their poppies on the picture frame of the veterans of both wars and the rest of the as-sembled guests were invited to place their poppy at the monu-ment.

A reception was held in the Museum for the invited guests. It was in this gathering that Mr. Carlisle presented to the school a plaque from The Black Watch Association of Toronto thanking the students for their contribution in honouring Lt. Cohen and staging a mean-ingful Remembrance Day ser-vice.

- Syd Moscoe


by Syd Moscoe - Continued

lished under the title They Shall Grow Not Old (known to many as The Book).

When my father and his brother, both veterans of the air war in Europe, found this book 20 years ago, they poured over it for days, look-ing for the names of old friends from the war. They were happy NOT to find names in the book as that would mean that the man had survived.

There are over 18,000 names in this book. And now these have been engraved on a black granite wall beside the Commonwealth Air Training Plan Museum in Brandon, MB.

This memorial wall was un-veiled on Sept. 10, 2014, in a very moving ceremony with veterans, representatives from the military, politicians, dedicated museum personnel and hundreds of people who were there to see the names of loved ones, names that they could touch. People came with photos and sto-ries. Some families hadseveral names on the wall. Flags were raised and low-ered and Les Allison, now 90,

WWII Rememberance Story by former

Harbord Teacher - Ms. Clair Soper

AIR TRAINING PLAN MUSEUM MEMORIAL WALL

SEPTEMBER 10, 2014…BRANDON, Manitoba

REMEMBERING the 19,000

This year is the 75th anni-versary of the beginning of WWII. Over a million Cana-dians joined various branches of the military and home de-fense to do their part in the war effort. It touched eve-ry Canadian family.

Around the country there were training schools set up for aircrew. This initiative was called The Common-wealth Air Training Plan. One school was in Brandon, MB. Over 130,000 personnel went through courses there: pilots, navigators, mechanics, bomb aimers and gunners. There were young men from Canada and other Common-wealth countries, Australia, New Zealand and Britain es-pecially. Some were killed in training,most went overseas, and some did not return.

Thanks to the tireless ef-forts of Les Allison, who was eighteen when he went to the war, now of Carmen, MB, and with the assistance of Harry Hayward, a compre-hensive book of the names of those in the RCAF who did not return, along with a brief paragraph on each, was pub-

with his son Neil, played the Last Post. There was a fly-past comprised of a Tiger Moth, a Stinson, a Harvard and a Fairchild, all from the museum's collection.

Then, black sheets were re-moved from the wall’s granite panels by relatives. More than 60 of these panels stretch for over 91 meters, in a gentle arc, reflecting the shape of a wing. For the most part, the names on this wall are of RCAF men. Their ranks aren't given, nor their dates, nor place of death and burial, nor the circumstanc-es. All that information can be found in The Book and it makes for sobering and trag-ic reading. Beside every name is a number, mostly19 or 20 or 21 or 22. I saw one 17, and one 44. These are the ages of the young men when they were killed. Short lives. They were brave, and proba-bly terrified, kids for the most part. Facing the wall, there is a 2.6 meter high bronze statue of a young air-crew officer heading to, or is it from?, his 'trip' as it was called. He's looking at the

names of all those who did not come home.

I found my uncle's name on

the wall, Sinclair Sop-er, after whom I was named. And I went looking for the names of the 25 young men who had attended Harbord Collegiate in Toron-to where I taught for 20 years. I had met these men through photos in the school, their beaming young faces smiling out at me, wearing their RCAF uni-forms so proudly.

I found the name of the fa-ther of a friend, Squadron Leader Ralph Davenport, who went overseas near the end of the war to fly with the boys he had been train-ing in Canada. He was killed over Germany in March of 1945. It's all in The Book, with the names of his crew, all buried in Kiev.

I also found the names of the uncles of 2 other friends, one killed in a train-ing accident in England, and the other over Germany in 1944, flying with 6 RAF crew, like my uncle, in a Lan-caster.

Every name on that wall has a story. They all had families and friends who grieved for them and continue to re-member. The tragedy is that their life stories were too short. What might they

have accomplished? Who might they have become? What they did in their lives, wemust never forget. They gave us freedom to live our comfortable and secure lives here.

They were all heroes. Some were decorated. The cele-brated Andrew Charles My-narski, who was awarded a Victoria Cross, is on the wall. Medal or no medal, citation or no citation, they were all heroes, willing to make the ultimate sacrifice. The names of the 6 Canadian PoWs, part of the 50 recap-tured Great Escape officers from StalagLuft 3 who were shot by the Gestapo, are there. The Mosser twins, Andrew James and Robert William, aged 19, both died when their ship taking them to Europe was torpedoed off Greenland. They were not among the 16 of the 53 RCAF officers on board who were pulled from the frigid waters by a frigate. Inci-dentally, all but one of those 16 survived to see the end of the war.

That polished, black granite wall, stretching for what seems like infinity, with more than 19,000 names in-cluding panels to RAF, RNZAF and RAAF, serves as a sobering reminder of the cost of not being able to keep peace and harmony in our world. It's still some-

thing towards which human beings are striving.

They Shall Grow Not Old is on display in the air base museums in Brandon, Comox, Hamilton and Trenton. It can also be purchased through The Commonwealth Air Training Plan Museum in Brandon.

Donations for the wall and the statue may be made to the Commonwealth Air Train-ing Plan Museum in Brandon.

Clair Elizabeth Beck Soper

WWII Rememberance Story by former Harbord

Teacher, ..Continued

- Ms. Clair Soper

THEY

SHALL

GROW

NOT

OLD

Harbord C. I. 122nd Annual

Commencement

October 10, 2014

2014 Scholarship and Awards Winners!

2014 Grad & Harbord Club Award Winner Gives Thanks!

- Lydia Wong


- Tristan Morris

2014 Grad & Harbord Club 120th Anniversary Award Winner Gives

Thanks! - Maya Biderman


- Lindsey Benjamin


- Victoria Lee


- Jhenelle Grey

taken from ”The Flash” - an English class

stude nt newspape r, 1980 taken from ”The

Flash”- an English class student newspaper,

1980


- Melissa Lam


- Vivian Martin


- Pascale Walters


- Katerina Hatzinakos

taken from ”The Flash” - an English class st ude nt

newspape r, 1980 taken from ”The Flash” - an

English class student newspaper, 1980


- Rebecca Lu


- Jia Yuan Chen


- Nefertiti Wright

Mohamed


- Stephen Seo


- Andy Nguyen

Mohamed

2014 Grad & Harbord Club 120th Anniversary Award Winner

Gives Thanks!

- Patrick Gallagher

THE HARBORDITE

Peter Miller, Treasurer of the Harbord Charitable Foundation, is pleased to announce that this year the Foundation paid out $7,900.00 scholastic awards at the Commencement exercises and the Awards Assembly. These are funds earned from money donated over the years by former students , teachers and friends of Harbord Collegiate establishing scholarships and awards.

2014 Annual Meeting of the Harbord

Charitable Foundation

Harbord C. I. - Looking Forward To...

In this section, we highlight school events that are upcoming

~ Feb 16th - Family Day

~ Feb 25th - Winter Activity Day @ H.C.I.

~ Mar 14th - 22nd - March Break

~ Jun 5th - Last Day of Classes, Farewell Assembly, SAC BBQ

~ Jun 23rd - Class of 2015’s Prom

Why a Harbord Club?

#1. To establish and maintain a sense of common identity among former students and teachers of the school

#2. To share news from Harbordites everywhere

#3. To provide funds for prizes, awards and scholarships in all grades of the school

#4. To promote school spirit and pride in the stu-dents through historical knowledge

#5. To collect, preserve and display the school's historical photographs, papers and artefacts

#6. To assist in class reunions and annual home-coming events

Contact us:

on Facebook - Harbord C.I. grads/alumni

(We are over 500 in group!)

via Email - [email protected]

or - [email protected]

Harbord Club Executive

President Emeritus - Murray Rubin -HCI-1950

President Pro-Tem - Syd Moscoe -HCI-1952

Harbordite Co-editors - Ben-1978 & Belinda-1981 -Staff

Director - Ben Lee -HCI-1978

Director - Sidney Ingham -HCI-1978

Director - Belinda Medeiros-Felix -HCI-1981 –Staff

Director - Vasan Persad HCI-1994 - Staff

Director - Diana Da Silva -HCI-2009

Director - Sierra Medeiros-Felix -HCI-2010

Director - Harvey Mandel -HCI-1964

Student Representative - Cameron McGlade Bouchard - HCI-2016

Please donate to the Harbord Club. Charitable receipts are only issued for donations of $50.00 and over. All cheques of $50.00 and over for which a charitable receipt is required should be made payable to "Harbord Charitable Foundation" and on the face of the cheque in the Memo line insert the words "For the Harbord Club" . For any amount less than $50.00 or if a receipt is not required please make cheque payable to "Harbord Club" Thank You.

harbordite issue 71

Education

harbord family

harbord choir

staff of harbord

fallen harbord students

left photo

happy ghosts of harbord

cover story

harbord principal vince