Alan rediscovers his Canadian connection

PERSISTENCE finally paid off for Alan Winstanley when he re-established his 'Canadian connection' after a gap of more than half a century.

Alan, now 62, was just a kid when his parents played host to a young Canadian soldier on leave in the North of England during the second world war.

The family lost touch with the handsome young serviceman after a while. But Alan, though only about eight at the time, never forgot him.

And on a recent holiday, Alan, of Stafford Road, Toll Bar, was reunited, after a gap of 55 years, with wartime soldier Frank Harding. It had taken a lot of researching, lengthy correspondence with the National Archives of Canada and a transatlantic trip to achieve his goal.

The story begins back in the 'forties; the young soldier having been urged to make wartime contact with the Winstanley family by Alan's uncle, Canon Wilf Clarke, then serving with the Church of England in Canada.

The Winstanleys at that time were living in New Moston, Manchester, although Alan's dad, who'd moved to that district on promotion to locomotive fireman, was born in Napier Street, St Helens, and his mother at West End Road, Haydock.

Frank Harding had cut a fine figure, especially in his Canadian army uniform. "He had my female cousins' heads turning when mother took him to visit her relatives in St Helens," recalls Alan, who as well as being reunited with Frank, was able to realise another of his long-held ambitions. This was a visit to the grave of his Uncle Wilf, Haydock collier-turned-clergyman, who became known world-wide within the Boy Scout movement, being a close friend of its founder Lord Baden-Powell. Contact with Frank Harding had been lost when the Winstanleys returned to St Helens shortly after the war, Alan's dad having been promoted to engine driver based at Sutton Oak Sheds.

Badly wounded in Dieppe, all trace of Frank - then a bachelor in his twenties - was lost. The only memento was a photograph of him with his name and that of the Carleton York Regiment, New Brunswick, Canada, written on the back.

Not knowing whether or not Frank was still alive, Alan Winstanley wrote to the Canadian archive organisation for help, forwarding a copy of the picture and its inscription. Six months later came news that Frank, now 77, had been traced to Vancouver Island - but, under Canada's privacy law, they were unable to supply any personal details without the individual's consent. Alan was advised to send a letter addressed to Frank. This, they promised, would then be forwarded to the wartime soldier.

To Alan's delight, the message got through and a reunion on Canadian soil was the next step. The warm and highly-successful get-together, which lasted for a fortnight, has been captured on video and countless still photographs.

It proved the trip of a lifetime. As well as visiting such famed tourist attractions as Niagara Falls, and sightseeing in Vancouver Island's splendid capital, Victoria, Frank dropped off at Fredrinton, New Brunswick, where his Uncle Wilf was canon of the parish and lies buried in the churchyard there. It was a moving experience paying silent graveside tribute to that saintly man who had started working life as a pit lad in the collieries of Haydock.

In an amazing rise from rags to reverence, Wilf, one of nine brothers and sisters whose father died at the age of 45, had been forced to leave school at 12 to become the family breadwinner.

A top ranker within the St John Ambulance movement, he'd been a promising footballer in his youth, as well as developing into a talented engineer. Enlisting at the age of 20, he spent three years exposed to the horrors of trench warfare in France.

When he died in 1965 tributes flowed from the mighty to the humble. And Alan discovered that, more than 30 years later, the memory of this saintly man still burns brightly in his adoptive Canadian hometown.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.