Fred Luke's father Henry George Luke, also known as Harold, was an “Old Contemptible” in the First World War, a member of the regular British army who fought in the first battles of the war. His wife was Agnes Minn or Munroe and presumably they emigrated from England at the end of the war. Fred was born in Toronto on August 21, 1921. He had an older brother named John and two younger siblings, Barbara (born circa 1927) and William (born circa 1929).

 

Henry was a labourer and the family lived in the Spadina and Harbord neighbourhood, where, from the early 1930s they lived in a house that was on the northeast side of Spadina Crescent, now part of the University of Toronto. It would have been a simple walk to school for Fred, who attended Lansdowne school on the other side of the crescent. The family were members of St. Stephen's Anglican Church on Bloor near Spadina where Fred was a choir boy.

 

It is unclear when the family moved to the west end but they were living at 186 Gilmour Avenue by 1939. Fred attended Strathcona school, at minimum for Grade 8 and if he kept with his age cohort, he would have graduated in the Class of 1934. He continued to Western Tech for Grades 9 and 10, leaving to work as a labourer.

 

In September 1938 Fred joined the reserves of the Royal Regiment of Canada, a Toronto unit, and when the war broke out twelve months later, the 18 year old enlisted full-time with the regiment on September 11, 1939. His brother John also joined up, with a tank unit. Fred may have been held back in the reserves for several months, but he arrived at Camp Borden on June 6, 1940. The 1st Battalion of the Royals had just shipping out to Iceland for garrison duty and in the fall it proceeded to Britain to begin training.

 

Fred spent the rest of the year training at Camp Borden and in December was promoted to Acting Lance Corporal. In early February 1941 Fred entrained for Halifax and on the 15th he sailed to Britain. The North Atlantic in wintertime would not have made the crossing a smooth one. He disembarked at Gourock, Scotland on the 28th, reporting to the army camp on Witley Common, about 65 kilometres southwest of London.

 

On May 31 he was promoted to full Lance Corporal and was a reinforcement in the 2nd Battalion of the Royal Regiment of Canada. He was given a week long privilege leave in September. In November, his family moved a few blocks from Gilmour Avenue to 597 Runnymede Road.

 

On December 3, Fred was demoted back to private for refusing to obey a general order. He was given nine days' leave on December 22, but he returned to camp on January 5, 1942 eighteen and a half hours late and he forfeited five days' pay.

 

In January 1942, the Americans had just entered the war, battles were taking place in North Africa and the Russians were fighting along the Eastern Front. After Dunkirk in June 1940, the Germans controlled most of Europe. The Allies knew that an invasion of Europe was necessary and the Allied commanders were planning a raid to show the Russians that the British and Commonwealth forces had some commitment to engage the enemy on the Western Front. It was thought that by raiding a French port, holding it for a few days, destroying enemy defences and then withdrawing would also boost Allied morale, after many months of training without an objective. Canadian units were chosen for the task as they had had almost no battle experience to date. It was initially named Operation RUTTER, to be launched in early July with three months of amphibious training taking place along the south coast of England leading up to the operation. The Canadian troops were billeted with families in coastal towns. Poor weather caused the mission to be cancelled at the last minute.

 

The operation was resurrected as Operation JUBILEE and was to be launched in the middle of August. The men were given leave during July, in anticipation of the raid. Fred's leave began on July 21. The Royals shipped out of Portsmouth harbour on August 18 and once on board were told that they would be landing on the beach east of Dieppe at Puys (code-named Blue Beach) with the Black Watch of Canada, a Montreal regiment, and an artillery detachment.