Documenting the WWII Fallen of Toronto's Elementary Schools
Leslie Ward
(Not mentioned on Norway's Roll of Honour, but is listed on Malvern CI's roll.)
Born in Leeds, England on July 14, 1907, Leslie Ward immigrated to Canada in September 1919 with his mother Elsie and older brother Bertram. His father Robert had arrived in Canada earlier that year, working as a salesman. The family moved into 6 Norway Avenue. Leslie was 12 and it is assumed that he attended Norway because he lived in the Norway district. Leslie would have attended elementary school in Canada for Grades 7 and 8. He left Malvern Collegiate in 1922 after completing Grade 9, then worked for three years on a Great Lakes steamer and a year as a bank clerk. In 1928 he landed a job as a journalist at The Toronto Telegram. In the early 1920s, Leslie's family had a boarder who was a reporter for The Telegram. Leslie's new job gave him the security to marry Margaret Neaum, a Beach girl who lived on Silver Birch Avenue. The wedding was at St. Aiden's on September 21, 1929. The next year their son Peter was born followed by John nine years later.
Leslie worked in The Telegram's editorial department and then spent many years as a suburban reporter. The family moved around the Beach area almost annually, finally settling at 22 Cedar Avenue by 1937. In 1942, they bought 158 Neville Park Road. Leslie enjoyed sailing on 25 foot boats, swimming, tennis and golf. He played bridge and chess.
By July 30, 1943, with the war almost four years old, Leslie enrolled in the Royal Canadian Naval Volunteer Reserve as a Sub-lieutenant in the Office of Naval Information. He was promptly sent to Ottawa and Margaret and the boys settled there with him. Apart from a month of training in Nova Scotia, he remained in Ottawa until early April 1944 when he was transferred to the Navy's Information Office in London, England. He would be replacing a man who would be covering the upcoming D-Day. His family saw him off at Ottawa's train station and several days later Leslie sailed from St. John's, Newfoundland.
When he arrived in England, he sent his family a wire to let them know that he had landed safely. As soon as he reported at the London offices on April 28, he was eager to see some ships in action. When he heard that Haida and its sister ship Athabaskan (G-07) were sailing from Plymouth that evening, he was given permission to join them. He caught a train and boarded Athabaskan just five minutes before she sailed.
HMCS Athabaskan, circa 1943. Imperial War Museum photo.
Athabaskan was a destroyer that began service in the Canadian navy on February 3, 1943. Two days prior to Leslie's boarding, she had been in a successful operation, helping to destroy a German torpedo boat in the English Channel. At this time, the navy was preparing the English Channel for the coming invasion of France and on April 28, Athabaskan and Haida were to support a British mine-laying operation near the French coast. Athabaskan was soon given orders to intercept German warships near an island off the coast of Brittany. At about 0300 hrs Athabaskan was torpedoed and sunk. Haida laid a smoke screen and sent a motor cutter to pick up survivors. Athabaskan's commanding officer, who was in the water, told Haida to save herself and get away. Haida succeeded in rescuing 38 of Athabaskan's crew. The motor cutter rescued six survivors, but was chased by German minesweepers who eventually gave up and turned back. The cutter experienced motor trouble and encounters with enemy aircraft, but finally landed in England with a Royal Air Force escort by midnight on April 29.
HMCS Haida's cutter that rescued Athabaskan's survivors. Library and Archives Canada photo.
As with any ship sinking, there was confusion among the eyewitness accounts. 83 of the crew were taken prisoner by the Germans. 128 were missing. When Margaret received the telegram informing her that Leslie was missing, she was in disbelief, thinking that there was a mistake. She couldn't understand that she received a message from her husband a few days before, telling her he was in England for his office job and then he was missing in action a couple of days later. She and the boys returned to Toronto, finally settling in a house on Victoria Park Avenue. Margaret took a job at the Christie Street veterans' hospital and when she met any of the sailors who were on or with Athabaskan that night, she tried to piece together what had happened. She heard that her husband might have been on the flag deck, just behind the centre of the ship, and was probably thrown into the water when the torpedo struck just behind that deck. Less than a year later, Leslie was declared dead, his body never found. His name is on the Halifax Memorial and on a plaque on a bench near All Saints' Anglican Church in Westboro, near Ottawa.
Margaret remarried and passed away in 1987. Leslie's eldest son Peter joined the naval cadets and hoped to have a naval career, but he eventually followed in his father's footsteps and became a journalist at The Telegram, from 1951 until it closed in 1971. He continued as a freelance journalist. He was instrumental as part of a group that raised money to preserve Haida, which was moored at Toronto until 2002. She is currently moored at Hamilton as a National Historic Site. Peter's son, Mark was part of a diving team that visited the wreck of Athabaskan in 50 fathoms of water in the early 2000s. He had the honour of affixing a National Defence memorial plaque to the hull of the wreck.