Samuel Norman Nichols

(No proof could be found that indicates that Nichols attended Strathcona, other than the fact that his neighbour, Gordon Steinberg, attended the school. So, it is presumed that Nichols is a Strathcona alumnus.)

Sam Nichols was born Samuel Nathan Nikolaevsky on February 4, 1919 in Toronto's Grace Hospital to Benjamin (“Benny”) Nikolaevsky and Lilian “Lily” Krasneinsky. Benny was born in the mid-1880s in Dashiv, 200 kilometres southeast of Kyiv, Ukraine and followed his father and sisters to Canada after they emigrated in 1905. He married Lily on March 29, 1914 in Montreal. They soon settled in Toronto and the couple became important pillars of the little Jewish community of Knesseth Israel Synagogue on Maria Street, which had opened in 1914. Benny worked as a peddler. Lily was the longtime president of the West Toronto Hebrew Ladies Auxilliary. Sam was their first born, followed by Mitchell, Hilda and Herschel (“Harold”). At some point in his childhood, the family nicknamed Sam “Mink.” Along with English, German and Hebrew were spoken in the household. Benny brought thirteen relatives to Canada after World War I, including his mother. It is unclear where Sam's family was living prior to 1923, but that year they bought 125 Maria Street.

Sam finished elementary school in 1932, the same year he had his appendix removed, and then went to high school at Humberside Collegiate. He was a bespectacled boy who could play violin and was a basketball forward. He excelled in his French class and was also a member of the school cadets. By the time he joined the army in 1942, he had taken up golf. After he graduated from Humberside in 1937, he studied shorthand and typewriting the next year at Western Commerce. He had wanted to continue to university, but he felt he should work. He and his brothers decided to anglicize their name to Nichols.

King Street, Cobourg, Ontario in the early 1930s. Note the Nichols name on the sign on the left. Source: Cobourg Public Library.

Sam worked for six months as a salesman, saving his money. In May 1939 he moved 70 miles east of Toronto to Cobourg, where he bought a menswear store. In the 1930s and 1940s a family with the last name of Nichols ran a bookstore in the town and owned several buildings. This Nichols family may have been relatives of the Nikolaevskys. Sam earned $50 a week managing his business. He sold the business in December 1941 when he was called up to the reserves. At the time, he had breached the Liquor Control Act and had given alcohol to two of his customers who were underage. It is unknown whether he was fined or the charge was dropped.

His basic training took place in Peterborough, Ontario, starting on December 4. After it was completed, he and the others in his group were assigned to home defence around Peterborough. Sam finished his service on May 5, 1942 and enlisted in the army on May 8, in Quebec City. He requested a job as a supply clerk in the army service corps and stated that he planned to start a clothing store after the war or perhaps go into politics.

The army granted him his request. He was made a clerk with the Royal Canadian Ordnance Corps (RCOC), the administrative unit of the army. It supported the army by procuring all goods from clothing to weapons and also provided maintenance and repair. During the Second World War, the RCOC was 35,000 strong.

Sam went to Ottawa on July 6, stationed at Lansdowne Park, which at the time was an induction centre for troops heading overseas. Sam departed Canada on July 20, landing in Britain ten days later. He continued with the ordnance corps and that fall he also learned to use a rifle, a bren gun and how to throw live grenades. Every three months he was given a week's privilege leave.

Through 1943 the Canadian and American armies continued to arrive in Britain, mainly in preparation for the invasion of Europe. Training continued for the troops, but for some, it became a dull routine as there was no definitive date for an objective.

That changed in early 1944 and the men realized that an invasion would be launched within months. In February Sam was assigned to the 6th Infantry Brigade and then to the 4th Infantry Brigade Workshop a week later. On April 2 Sam sent a letter to his brother Mitchell and included what was essentially his will. He wrote that “things are moving fast and I believe I'm in on this show for going over the pond to who knows where, but we're going.”

D-Day was June 6, but Sam's unit didn't pull up stakes until July 1, leaving Tilmanstone, Kent, a few kilometres north of Dover, to arrive at the marshalling area for the Tilbury docks, downstream from London. They arrived at the docks on July 3 and boarded the American cargo ship SS John E Sweet, setting sail at 1315 hrs. The ship sat in the Thames estuary for two days before arriving on the Normandy coast at 2100 hrs on July 6. The men spent the night on the ship, disembarking at 0800 hrs the next morning, which was spent assembling the vehicles and personnel a kilometre inland of Juno Beach. On July 8, the unit set up in Brazenville, about 10 kilometres southwest of Juno. This day was the beginning of operation CHARNWOOD to take the city of Caen. Four hundred and fifty Allied bombers dropped almost 6000 tons of bombs on the city overnight. The Canadians launched the offensive east of Caen, but the Germans put up a solid resistance until the next afternoon, when the British and the Canadians had the northern half of the city under their control.

The Germans were slowly pushed south of Caen and on July 11, Sam's unit moved 25 kilometres south to Eterville, just southwest of Caen, where it experienced heavy shelling. The Allies slowly pushed the Germans south to Falaise and were trying to encircle them between August 12 and the 21st. Sam's unit had been stationed in the Caen vicinity until August 15, when it moved 20 kilometres south to set up approximately a few kilometres from Falaise, entering the city on August 18.

After Falaise, the Germans retreated quickly north and the Allies followed. The Americans liberated Paris on August 25 and the Canadians captured Dieppe on September 1, a bitter sweet victory after the disastrous Dieppe raid which had killed 907 Canadians in August 1942. The current triumph was celebrated with a parade of the Canadian troops. From Dieppe, the Canadians rapidly advanced towards Belgium and they liberated Ostend on September 8. The British had liberated Antwerp on September 5. The city was a strategic target as the Allies saw it as an important supply port. It was located at the end of the Scheldt estuary and the Canadians battled for its control, entering the Netherlands on October 5.

Sam was stationed in Antwerp and on October 14, he was killed. The only known detail of his death was given to his parents – that he was killed when a vehicle he was riding on was hit by an enemy shell. It is possible that he was alone at the time as there is no indication of any other Ordnance Corps member dying on a vehicle that day. However, 10 members of the No. 2 Mobile Laundry and Bath Unit, part of the Ordnance Corps, were killed instantly when an enemy shell fell on them that day near Antwerp. Sam may have been with them.

Sam's grave in Schoonselhof Cemetery, Antwerp, Belgium. Photo by Marg Liessens from The Canadian Virtual War Memorial.

Sam was buried in Antwerp's Schoonselhof Cemetery the next day. His parents continued to live at 125 Maria Street until Lily's death in 1962. By then, most of the Junction's Jewish community had dispersed and Benny bought a house near Bathurst and Wilson in North York's Jewish neighbourhood. He passed away in 1966.