Ken and Mickey MacDonald - Their desire to serve brought them together
This bio was submitted by the children of Ken and Mickey MacDonald.
Ken and Mickey Macdonald volunteered for service in the Canadian Army during the Second World War. Our mother, Hazel Irene McMaster, had turned 18 on January 13, 1943. Orphaned the year before, Mom had made her way to Toronto from her home town of Peterborough and found work in a factory there. She enrolled in the Canadian women’s Army Corps May 27th, 1943. At the Camp in Woodstock, she earned a Class-A Mechanic certificate. Also, as a member of the motor pool, she was a Driving Instructor and a Driver for the ‘Brass’.
One of her sons remembers that Mom always kept a tool kit and was the person the neighbourhood kids trusted to fix their bikes. She usually knew what was wrong with our cars before the garage mechanics did.
Our Dad, Ken, grew up in a small hamlet, Brigden, close to Sarnia, Ont. He left high school early to join the Bank of Nova Scotia but took a leave to sign up as a cadet in the Army on September 22, 1941. On October 16, 1943, he was appointed to Commissioned Rank as a Lieutenant.
Within a very short time after his arrival at Woodstock he met Hazel McMaster, who had already picked up the nickname ‘Mickey’. Ken served as a Trainer in the Tank Corps and, toward the end of the war, was training to be a Paratrooper.
Our parents were married on December 13, 1945. Mickey had been discharged October 16, 1945 and Ken was ‘struck off the strength’ on January 2, 1946. He joined the Canadian Army [Reserve] August 3, 1950 and was honourably discharged April 1, 1967.
In civilian life, Mom was too busy with seven children to work outside the home, but she held many civic volunteer positions; most notably as the founder and chair of the White Cane Club in Pembroke and Chair of the Library Board there.
As a successful Banker for more than 40 years, Dad held many positions with various community service clubs. In Belleville from 1964-1967, three of his five sons joined and served in the Cadet Corps of the Hastings and Prince Edward Regiment where Dad was second in command.
Our Dad died on October 19, 1993 and our Mom died April 12, 2006. We want to dedicate a tree to them on the Highway of Heroes, not only because they volunteered to serve in war and in peace, but also because they instilled in all seven of us a strong pride in our country as well as a spirit of service to our communities. Dad was a lifelong gardener and he would have been among the first to sponsor a tree on the Highway of Heroes.