Memory Project

Wayne Marshall (Primary Source)

Published Online August 3, 2022

Last Edited January 30, 2024

This testimony is part of the Memory Project Archive

Please note that this story was part of an earlier archive and does not have the same format as stories published since 2009. Many earlier stories were made by third parties and do not share the same image content as recent veteran testimonies.

Please be advised that Memory Project primary sources may deal with personal testimony that reflect the speaker’s recollections and interpretations of events. Individual testimony does not necessarily reflect the views of the Memory Project and Historica Canada.

Mr. Marshall visited the memorial set up at the Belsen concentration camp from World War II in 1955.
Wayne Marshall/The Memory Project
Another memorial to the victims of the Holocaust at Belsen concentration camp in Germany.
Wayne Marshall/The Memory Project
Wayne Marshall's medals (from left to right): Special Service Medal with NATO bar; Peacekeeping; UN Emergency Force Middle East; UN Disengagement Observer Force; Queen Elizabeth II Silver Jubilee Medal; Candian Forces Decoration.
Wayne Marshall/The Memory Project
Wayne Marshall in Soest, Germany, June 1966.
Wayne Marshall/The Memory Project
Living conditions at the Canadian Forces base Petawawa in 1961. Mr. Marshall was stationed there with the Second Battalion of the Royal Canadian Regiment.
Wayne Marshall/The Memory Project
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I joined the Army in the fall of 1952, and went into a new apprentice soldier programme for boys that were sixteen years old. It was part of the regular Army. I served on continuously from then right up until just before I was fifty-six years old, giving me almost forty years of regular service.

My name is Wayne Marshall. I'm from a little place near Weymouth, Nova Scotia, seven miles inland. I joined the Army in the fall of 1952, and went into a new apprentice soldier programme for boys that were sixteen years old. It was part of the regular Army. I served on continuously from then right up until just before I was fifty-six years old, giving me almost forty years of regular force service, after which I transferred to the Supplementary Ready Reserve. I'm completely out at this age because I'm sixty-nine years old now.

I felt I had a fantastic military career. I was very satisfied with it all. The Korean War was on when I joined and I was put into the Canadian Army Active Force, as part of the force that was supposed to be getting ready to go to Korea, but the Korean War ended and I never did go to Korea. But I went to Germany three times and I did two UN tours in the Middle East. I played quite a big part in the FLQ thing in 1970, which was one of the highlights of my time in the military, on October the 15th of 1970 and onward.

Also I was a part of the Kingston Penitentiary riot here in 1971, and I did the operation in Italy for the earthquake in 1976 for a month, and I was in charge of the communications for that, and that was probably one of the highlights of my time in the military, doing the things I was trained to do, all very exciting and satisfying.

I had many good experiences over the years. In all the countries I went to I met good people most of the time. Very seldom did I meet people that didn't like Canadians, which I'm happy to say, mostly because of the veterans who had gone before me in Europe. They sort of paved the way for goodwill towards Canadians. But in the Middle East the reputation of Canadians was also very good because it went back for many years. So everything for me worked out very well.