When WWII in Europe ended on May 8, 1945, it was just days before my 3rd Birthday. To say that I remember the day well may be a bit of a stretch. Dad had sailed from Halifax on October 5, 1941. I was born on May 29, 1942, 236 days after he left for England. He had been hanging around Southampton a lot that summer and early fall.
Dad had enlisted in Stratford, in the Perth Regiment, on September 29, 1939, just 19 days after Canada declared war on Germany. Mom and Dad married on December 16, 1939, and set up their home on MacDonald Lane, between Albert St., and Grosvenor St. In the months before Dad shipped out, he was stationed at Camp Borden.
What I know about May 8, 1945, is that there was a motorcade of trucks and cars that went between Port Elgin and Southampton. There was at least one band, because I have a picture of my mother’s two brothers on a flatbed truck with their horns in their hands. My uncle Dick was visiting, and he told me that I sat on his shoulders to see the parade.
Dad did not get home until September 14, 1945. He served in England, France, Belgium, Holland, and Germany. He had driven a large MAC tow truck all the way from Juno Beach into Germany with a few stops along the way. Being part of the Engineering group meant that they had to organize all of the Canadian equipment for return to Canada before they could make the trip home.
He arrived in Toronto, the morning of September 14, 1945. He was discharged in time to catch the late train home. On board with him were two fellows from Port Elgin, also anxious to get here. I do not know if they were aware of what awaited them in Port Elgin. Honestly, some of this I do remember. Billy Weiss drove Mom, Gloria and I to Port Elgin in his taxi; a big crowd gathered, and a band was playing as the 3 fellows returned home to many family members and excited friends.
This part has been repeated so many times, I think, that it must have happened. Little Billy Streeter, 3 years and 4 months old, met his dad for the first time. He asked his dad, “Are the Germans all dead Daddy?”
My father answered, “Only bad ones Billy”.
Now, the reason I wrote this today (January 26th) was that yesterday, I spent four hours at our favourite Hospital Emergency Room. Every time I spend time there, I think about the history of our hospital and how important an addition it was for us all in 1947 and for the foresight of the town fathers to realize that, when the war ended, we would need a hospital badly in the years that would follow. We need to be thankful.
There were close to 500 young men from Southampton, Port Elgin, Saugeen First Nation, and Saugeen Township who would be coming home and starting families. This would put pressure on our community such as one cannot imagine. In all of Bruce County, there were only two hospitals, with a total of 74 beds serving a population of 38,000.
This story has been told countless times, but once more, will not hurt. The Rotary Club of Southampton, with Mr. Ellis Millard, a WWI veteran, being the moving spirit, took the lead and moved forward.
Sitting on the top of the hill, overlooking Fairy Lake, was a summer hotel called Hillcrest Lodge. It had been built around 1880 by Henry Zinkan, an ancestor of our Port Elgin friend Peter Zinkan. The major project was undertaken, and it was enlarged to provide 22 beds, 7 cribs, staff quarters for 4, separate living quarters for six nurses and superintendents rooms. Also included was a complete operating room, a delivery room, 2 sterilizing rooms, 3 utility rooms, 5 bathrooms, 3 storage rooms, nurses and staff dining rooms, a main kitchen, and, a diet kitchen, laundry, nurses dressing room, doctors suite, superintendents offices, elevator and a morgue.
All that was needed was “workers” to make it happen. That was easy. They all arrived by boat from Europe … our returning veterans. Planning began in 1945, work was started and continued through 1946, and on October 16, 1947, the brand new Saugeen Memorial Hospital opened. It was opened just over three weeks before the first of four additions to the Streeter family arrived.
There has never been anything more important, happen in our town of Southampton than what was accomplished in that two-year period that followed WWII.
Thanks Ellis, Thanks Rotary. Thanks to all who did the work. Mostly our veterans.
Written by: G. William (Billy) Streeter
January 26, 2026
