Monthly Archives: June 2023

Afghanistan, Artifacts

Donation of Stephen Thomas, MB, CD Portrait

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Contemporary Canadian war artist Gertrude Kearns is known for her evocative portraits of senior military leaders. She was embedded with the Canadian Forces in Afghanistan in 2005-2006 but her portfolio includes earlier works on Somalia, Rwanda, and the former Yugoslavia.

Ms. Kearns eventually compiled her Afghan war art into an exhibit titled “The Art of Command: Portraits and Posters from Canada’s Afghan Mission.”
In 2008, she was commissioned to paint Tecumseh and Brock, the Shawnee Indian leader and British major-general who both fought and died in the War of 1812. In 2019 she was made a member of the Order of Canada.

In 2000 Warrant Officer Stephen Thomas joined the 7th Toronto Regiment and in 2003/04, he completed his first tour in Afghanistan. In 2005, he saw the light and transferred to The Queen’s Own Rifles of Canada, later becoming a member of the regiment’s parachute company.

Thomas’ second deployment to Afghanistan occurred between July 2006 and March 2007, where he served as force protection. On October 3, 2006, in Kandahar then Corporal Thomas with three others, saved the lives of their fellow soldiers and local Afghan civilians by unloading ammunition from a disabled burning vehicle during a suicide bomber attack. For this action, he was awarded the Canadian Forces Medal of Bravery.

I encourage you to read the full citation and some of Warrant Thomas’ own recollections of the action which are on his profile page on our museum’s website.

In early 2021 Ms. Kearns created a large portrait of Warrant Thomas using mixed media in her easily recognizable style. You may recall having seen an image of this on the cover of the 2020-2021 Rifleman magazine.

In the fall of 2022, the artist contacted our museum and very generously offered to donate the portrait to us. After a few delays, Curator Shaun Kelly picked up the piece earlier this year from Ms. Kearns’ studio. He then arranged to have the portrait framed and covered with museum-grade plexiglass to protect it while on exhibit. On 6 June 2023 at the D-Day Dinner at Casa Loma, Ms Kearns and Warrant Thomas unveiled the donated portrait. On the following Thursday our museum team hung the portrait for exhibit in our 1945 to Present Room.

Our very grateful thanks to Ms. Kearns for her generous donation!

Remembrance, Second World War, WWII

D-Day+79

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Today marks the 79th anniversary of D-Day and the first time we commemorate without any known living survivors of that landing.

Some of us recently attended the memorial service for Alex Adair who passed away on Christmas Eve 2022 and was our last known living D-Day veteran.

Alex was one of the four soldiers in the well-known photograph (above) of the just liberated home now known as Canada House. The other three were Jim Leslie, Norman Hore and Bob McBurney.

You can hear about how they ended up in this photo from Alex himself in this short video:


Sixty-one Queen’s Own soldiers were killed on D-Day and you can find profiles of each of them here.

Some Facts About The QOR Fallen

  • The average age of the fallen was 29.9 years old
  • The youngest was 19-year-old Rifleman Russell Adamson of Midland
  • The oldest was 40-year-old Corporal Hugh Rocks of Kirkland Lake
  • Many of these riflemen left school at the age of 14 or 15 – few completed high school
  •  Many of their fathers had served in the First World War
  • Rifleman Calbert’s brother was also QOR and was killed in Holland in February 1945.
  • Rifleman Corvec was transferred to the QOR from a reinforcement unit on 26 May 1944 – just 12 days before D-Day
  • Rifleman Hall served in the 1939-1940 Finnish-Russian War before enlisting with the QOR in England in 1942
  • Sergeant “Freddy” Harris was the only Jewish rifleman among the QOR’s D-Day fallen.
  • Rifleman Lizon has no known grave and is remembered on the Bayeux Memorial however there are several graves in Beny-sur-mer Cemetery with no known names.
  • Rifleman Martin lied about his age in order to join the QOR in Jun 1940. He was two days shy of his 22nd birthday on D-Day
  • Riflemen May and McCallum were originally drummers but would serve as stretcher bearers on D-Day
  • Lance Corporal McKechnie was married in England on 18 May 1944 – just weeks before D-Day
  • Included in this list are two brothers – Gordon and Douglas Reed
  • Rifleman Showers was AWOL (absent without leave) when his original regiment The Black Watch, left Newfoundland, and on reappearing was posted to the QOR
  • Rifleman Stock was an indigenous soldier from Gibson Reserve
  • From the QOR fallen alone, at least 17 children became fatherless on D-Day

Watch this video to learn more about The Queen’s Own on D-Day:

You can find more about the QOR and the Second World War including personal reminisces of D-Day on our Second World War Resources page.

Please consider supporting the Regiment’s Return to Normandy: 80th Anniversary of D-Day.