WWII veteran's family reunited with service record found at Goodwill
Liny Lamberink | CBC News | Posted: August 26, 2020 8:00 AM | Last Updated: August 26, 2020
Henry St. Pierre's relatives aren't sure how his service record ended up there in the first place
Unsure how it ended up at a Goodwill store in the first place, the family of a Second World War veteran from Chatham-Kent say they're excited to be reunited with a record of his wartime service.
Kelly Patterson, who is from St. Thomas, discovered the document inside a copy of History of World War II that she bought for $2.50 on Friday. At the time, she said she knew the service record belonged with someone else.
And she was right.
Shelley Boylan, Henry St. Pierre's eldest granddaughter, said she "couldn't believe it" when she learned someone had found the document.
"My ex-husband was listening to the radio, and he heard people were looking for relatives of Henry St. Pierre, and he immediately contacted myself and my friend, after he went [online] just to make sure it was [my] grandpa," she explained.
Boylan said her niece, Claire MacDonald, went with her dad to pick the record up Monday night.
"We also thought how wonderful it was that [Patterson] actually wanted to get grandpa's records back to us, that she took the time to do that," Boylan said.
The family is unsure how the document ended up at one of London's Goodwill Bookstores. Boylan wonders if her grandmother, an avid reader, placed the record inside a library book or if the book originally belonged to her grandparents and was accidentally donated following her grandmother's death.
"My aunt said to me: 'We went through those books, Shelley' because we knew that grandma put grandpa's pictures and different stuff in there or it could be the library thing too, we're just not sure."
What matters most, she says, is that the record is back with the family.
Staying connected
Kelly Patterson said she received a handful of messages from St. Pierre's family members on Monday.
"I was surprised, pleasantly surprised," she said. "I didn't know if I'd ever actually find anybody who'd claim it."
Patterson gave the service record to MacDonald, and offered to give them the book as well.
"They were like: 'You keep the book, and I'll keep this, and that'll keep us connected.'"
Who was Henry St. Pierre?
The service record says St. Pierre's first assignment was as a dispatch rider.
"He went ahead and took messages, secret messages to different places, and scouting, is what I understand it as," said Boylan.
He also met his future wife, Una, while he was stationed in England.
"They met at a dance, they each had a friend with them, they had kind of a whirlwind romance and got married over there, and so did the [friends] they were with," Boylan explained.
St. Pierre was also injured near the end of the war, she said.
"My mom thought it was in Belgium or Holland. He went ahead and was doing his job, and there was a blackout. My grandpa actually ran into a brick wall, and he was injured, and he was in the hospital for the rest of the war."
She's not sure the severity of the injury, or for how long he was hospitalized. But eventually, Boylan said, he and his wife came to Canada and lived out their days on the family farm, just outside of Thamesville.
"He joined the army quite young, and in our family we kind of have a joke about it because he doesn't like farming at all,"
she said.
she said.
"He thought that was going to be more enjoyable than farming and he wanted some adventure."
St. Pierre died at age 80 on January 2, 2000.