At the recent Chantry Centre 55+ Remembrance Tea, members were enthralled as the granddaughter of Canada’s flying ace of World War I, Billy Bishop, regaled them with stories of her famous grandfather.
Award winning journalist, Diana Bishop, told of how her famous grandfather from Owen Sound married the daughter of equally famous Timothy Eaton of the Eaton’s store chain.
She recounted too, how as a child, she showed up one day at school with a brown paper bag. Inside was the large breastplate of some of the most precious war medals on the planet, including the Victoria Cross that had belonged to her grandfather and laughingly said that, “… they had been kept in my father’s underwear drawer”. Today the medals are in the Canadian War Museum and are insured for $10 Million.
After more than 20 years working as a journalist in Canadian media, Bishop has written a memoir, Living Up to a Legend: My Adventures with Billy Bishop’s Ghost, that looks back on her grandfather’s legacy and how it has had a profound influence over her life and that of her father’s, Billy Bishop’s only son.
The theme of the Tea was ‘Remembering the Poppy’ with uniquely individual creations of the poppy and wartime by Centre members lining the walls.
Southampton Legion began the occasion with a marching in of the Colours. Legion President John Willetts then told everyone of the many special events that have been planned to mark the 100th Anniversary of the WW I Armistice.
