At nineteen he joined the 10th Machine-Gun Battalion of the N.P.A.M., stationed in Winnipeg under Lieut. Col. O.M.M. Kay. Two years later this outfit was amalgamated with the 1st Battalion Winnipeg Grenadiers. Thus in 1936 Thomas became a Grenadier. He attended drills and camps and was attached to “B” co. commanded by H.W. Hook (who later died in a prison camp at Hong Kong).
Tom was very proud of his uniform and prouder still when he was promoted to Corporal. He worked hard during the day at this trade of decorator but never missed a parade at night or on weekends.
In 1939 he became a Sergeant and an authority on the heavy machine-gun. This knowledge and training served him in good stead at Hong Kong where, at one time of emergency, he found that of the group he was attached to, he was the only one that knew about the Vickers to be able to take new parts from their packing and actually put the gun together that would work immediately without delay of further adjustment. An armourer usually does this work.
There were two big events in his life that year. First, his marriage to a Miss Betty Horton of St. Vital, Manitoba, and secondly the visit of Their Majesties King George VI and Queen Elizabeth.
Thomas always had a picture of the reigning Monarch hung in his room. First, George V, then Edward, and lastly the present occupants of the Throne.
So he was exceedingly proud to be chosen as member of the guard of Honor at the Railroad Depot. How he scrubbed and polished. This was still a time of depression and many of the men in the Militia were out of work. Yet all donated their meager militia pay to Battalion Funds in order to hold their organization together. The men had to provide their own military boots and some on the Guard of Honor could not afford to do so. The Officers, out of their own pockets, provided them.
This was short six months before the outbreak of the Second World War, a war that threatened the very existence of Canada and its people. There was not enough military equipment in Winnipeg at the time to properly equip a Corporals Guard.
Many of these lads, who gave their pay; later gave their lives - all honor to them! They were the first to enlist in the active army and the basis of the firsts training of new recruits. They served well then, and later on the battlefront. May they not be forgotten!
John Payne, Bob Manchester, Ken McCully, Earl Dickie and others – hastened to be the first to enlist. The Grenadiers were to be mobilized as an Infantry Battalion under their old commander Lieut.-Col. Kay.
After a brief period of training they were sent to Jamaica in the West Indies to relieve an English regiment for front line service. They stayed fifteen months, returning to Winnipeg in October 1941 in fine shape. Perhaps some of them were a little heavy, as my boy weighed 190 lbs., quite difference to the 120 lbs. to which he was reduced in Japan.
In Jamaica he was, for a time, in charge of the guards at a prison camp for Germans. The prisoners were well fed and were cocky enough to hoist the Nazi flag in their compound and make all inmates salute it. He saw the English Commandant; armed only with a walking stick, actually risk his life in separating opposing factions who were fighting. How different was his treatment when he, in turn, became prisoner.
They had only been in Winnipeg a week when they were recalled from leave and told that the Battalion was leaving immediately for parts unknown.
There was some confusion and annoyance at the haste of the departure. Thomas, however, accepted this curtailment, as one of those things that happens when a nation is a war and he reported promptly. He was put in charge of a patrol to round up stragglers in Winnipeg. He disliked the job at the time and the memory of it now even more. Some of those the patrol rounded up died in Hong Kong prison camps under distressful circumstances, but at that time it was his duty and he did it. Many of the Grenadiers were very indignant at having their leaves so abruptly terminated. Extra guards were posted at the barracks on Main Street as all were confined to barracks.
