When Ross Welbanks was born on July 19, 1921, his family was living at 158 Rhodes Avenue near Coxwell and Dundas. His mother Anastasia Blanchard (“Ann”) was born in Burlington and his father Marshall came from Prince Edward County. They married in Toronto on November 12, 1913. When Ross arrived, he was welcomed by three brothers, John Marshall, Norman Frederick and Charles Stephen and a sister, Marcella Mary. Marshall worked at Wrigley's chewing gum factory on Carlaw Avenue as an engineer in the heating plant. In 1924 the family moved to 266 Cedarvale Avenue and Ross went to school at Danforth Park. The family moved again, in 1928, to 135 Coleridge Avenue. Two more boys joined the family – Leonard Robert circa 1926 and Marshall Raymond circa 1931.

 

Ross did not attend school after he graduated from Danforth Park, most likely in 1935. The family had moved in 1934 to Burgess Avenue near Woodbine and Kingston Road. It appears that Ross most likely continued at Danforth Park even though he was living in the Norway school district. Although Marshall Sr found jobs at Wrigley's for at least two of his children, Ross worked as a clerk in a fish market on Danforth Avenue near East Lynn Park. He hoped some day to learn tinsmithing. His brothers John and Norman married two sisters named Theurer who lived at 508 Main Street and they moved in with the Theurer family.

 

Ross enlisted in The Lincoln and Welland Regiment at Niagara-on-the-Lake on July 15, 1940 and trained there for at least three months, then moved to the Chippewa Barracks near North Bay. Throughout Ross' military career he was not a model soldier, regularly disciplined for being AWOL and for various other infractions.

 

In early 1941, his family moved to a house at 1308 Gerrard Street East, near Greenwood Avenue. Ross had a week's leave between February 27 and March 12 to see the new place. On May 8, the regiment boarded trains from Niagara Falls and headed west to Nanaimo, British Columbia, arriving on May 12. The unit was to provide coastal defence and they spent the summer on Vancouver Island. On September 10, Ross and the regiment climbed aboard a train to take them to the other side of the continent. Once in Ontario, Ross was granted three days' embarkation leave, from the 15th to the 18th. As was usual with Ross, he was late returning from the leave and awarded detention. He had rejoined the unit by the time it landed at Botwood, Newfoundland on September 29. The regiment was to provide defence for Botwood and Gander airports. Until the 1960s, Newfoundland provided an important refuelling point for transatlantic flights and during the war, it was a prime target for the enemy. The troops stationed in Botwood also inspected ships which docked in the port.

 

As autumn arrived, the conditions became harsh. The regimental huts had to be built quickly and snow fell in October. There were shortages of coal and firewood along with replacement boots and a sufficient number of winter coats. The regiment survived the miserable winter and was moved to St John's in mid-March 1942. In Ross' file, there is evidence that he arrived there over a month earlier than the rest of the regiment, due to yet another detention in early February. On March 26, Ross began his annual furlough and returned to Toronto. Normally a leave was two weeks but because of the extra travel from Newfoundland, it was a three week leave and Ross returned on time on April 15.

 

When he was in Botwood, Ross avoided a mumps epidemic, but then he entered the hospital in St John's on May 16 with mumps and was finally discharged on June 5. Life continued in St John's, mostly keeping watch and inspecting the ships that arrived in the harbour. Ross' discipline record remained empty until November when he allowed civilians to loiter around his post. The unit spent another winter in Newfoundland, but St John's fortunately wasn't isolated the way Botwood was.

 

On April 24, 1943, The Lincoln and Welland Regiment began their move to Nova Scotia. Ross was in the first group to leave Newfoundland and on the 28th he proceeded on his annual leave to Toronto, returning on May 11 to their new barracks at Aldershot, Nova Scotia near the north coast on the Bay of Fundy. It was quiet for Ross at the camp when he returned, as most of the regiment had been sent home for their embarkation leaves. Most were back in Nova Scotia by the beginning of June and it was apparent that they would be shipping overseas soon. On July 16 the regiment left Halifax and sailed into Gourock, Scotland on July 23.

 

Training for the inevitable invasion of Europe began. There are no specific medical files in Ross' service record, but he was admitted on August 25 to the 8th General Hospital in Crowthorne, the closest Canadian military hospital to the Aldershot base, perhaps from a training injury. He was discharged on September 21 and by this time the regiment was in Norfolk, England on brigade and division exercises. Ross was re-admitted to the hospital on October 14 and was sent to a convalescent hospital on October 25. He was discharged from there on December 4, but not before being reprimanded for being AWOL a week before he left. He was AWOL again on December 18 and lost his Christmas pass as a result. Before returning to The Lincoln and Welland Regiment on January 7, 1944, he was disciplined twice more for bad behaviour.

 

The regiment had moved to Crowborough in Sussex, 40 kilometres south of London. On February 15 they spent a week in the Scottish West Highlands, doing amphibious training near Inveraray on Loch Fyne. Training continued in England and Ross entered hospital again on April 29. He returned to the unit on July 4. The regiment was still stationed in Crowborough, living in tents on the local golf course. The invasion of Europe was in full swing and the Lincs were supposed to sail to France on June 28, but their departure had been delayed. Overhead, the Allied aircraft were flying on route to or returning from France. The only German presence in the airspace were V1 flying bombs, known as buzz bombs or doodlebugs, a lethal missile which the Germans had been launching from across the English Channel, mainly targeted at London. At the peak, one hundred buzz bombs a day were launched at England. The engine made a buzzing noise and when it ran out of fuel it fell to earth. Not only was it a destructive bomb, but it was an incredible psychological weapon. The English lived in fear of the silence when one of the bombs stopped buzzing.