This is an aerial view of the Fort Churchill Military Base.

In the center of this picture are the Chapels at Fort Churchill Military Base. One part of the building is for the Roman Catholics and it was called "Our Lady of the Snows" Chapel. Michael was baptized there in 1954 and so was his younger sister in 1959. I believe the priest's name was Fr. Lord. The other section was the Protestant Chapel where there was a military chaplain for all denominations of Protestants.

Farther along the road to the left is where "J" area PMQs were situated. Both times that we lived at Fort Churchill we lived in this "J" area. I believe the Sergeant's Mess can be seen in the bottom right hand corner. That could be argued, but I know it was there somewhere.

There were also a lot of American service personnel and their families living on this base at the time. With both Americans and Canadians being there we had a very long celebration time from July 1st until the evening of July 4th. There were usually some ball games played during this time, as well as a parade, etc.

This is a picture of the Arena at Fort Churchill. That is my husband Jack with our son Michael in the buggy. I guess he was hoping that some of the hockey spirit would rub off on his son. (It did). Jack used to play for the navy hockey "B" team as a goalie. He also did some refereeing (and lived to tell about it) and coached a young midget hockey team called The Maroons. We had some really good hockey games between the Navy and the Army. Also in this building, I believe, was a Curling Rink.

This is the front of the hospital where Michael was born in 1954 and Jacqueline was born in 1959. The hospital extended farther back (probably visible in the air view of the Base). When we had an appointment with a doctor at the hospital we had to go into the front door then into one of the two dressing rooms where we removed all of our cloths and put on a provided gown and dressing gown. We left our cloths in that room and went out into the corridor and sat in a chair along a wall and waited until our name was called. We got to see whatever doctor is on duty that day, at the particular time of your appointment. No family doctors there! When Michael was born I was assisted by Captain Truin, an Army doctor. When Jacquie was born I was assisted by Captain McFarland, also an Army doctor. The doctors were assisted my military nursing sisters.

I was born and raised in Victoria, British Columbia, and had never been to a place like Churchill before. My first trip to the townsite of Churchill after arriving there from Victoria was when I had my first doctor appointment on the base. I was told to walk through the native village into the town and catch the bus from there out to the base, and to ask the driver to show me where the hospital was. The doctor's office is in the hospital.

I started off down the trail but in the middle of the trail I could see that one of the natives was having trouble with his dog team. He was cracking his whip at them and they were yapping and barking back at him. I had never seen or heard anything like that before. He was right in the path that I was told to go along. I tried to make a detour and got myself lost. Walking along a trail that went between a couple of ponds I came upon two native women who appeared to be washing cloths in the pond. I am not sure what they were doing actually. I asked them if they could tell me how to find my way to the town of Churchill. They looked at each other and laughed and laughed. I must have looked pretty dumb, but I did not know that I was already almost there. I still had to encounter another dog before I actually got to the bus stop.

I got to the hospital, did the routine of getting into a gown and such that I have described elsewhere. When my name came up I went in to the office to meet Captain Truin. When I told him that I was pregnant I was told that this is not maternity day and that I would have to come back on the day that they look after maternity cases. Jack did not think to tell them that I was pregnant. He just made an appointment for me and figured that I would tell them that myself. So I had to get dressed, catch the bus, and head back home the same way that I got there. That was my introduction to life in Churchill. I was sure upset for awhile, then I got used to it.

The hospital had civilian, Eskimo and Indian patients, some of them were flown in from very isolated areas in the north. One time the cast of the Tommy Hunter Show visited patients at the hospital (see the Entertainment Gallery).

This is a picture of the PMQ. This building, and rows of others like it, had four apartments. They had a long hallway going down the middle. Each family had to take a turn keeping that hallway washed, waxed, cleaned and dusted on Sunday evenings and ready for inspection on Monday mornings. On Monday morning the officers would come and walk through these hallways (or tunnels) and inspect their condition and then they would leave a grade mark on the door of the apartment that had been responsible for cleaning it that Sunday.

The second time we were up there we had an apartment near the end of the building on the Bay end. The door into the building was always wet and slushy from people coming in out of the snow, or coming through when we were in the middle of cleaning it. It was hard to keep that end of the hallway looking good, especially if some idiot left the door open.

That's Jack and Mike in the foreground.

In this building was a store. Upstairs was a catalogue counter. I think it was Sears but I could be wrong about that. I believe the bank may have been housed in that building too. The Chapels are visible to the left of the Commissary.

This photo, dating from 1959, is believed to be the common Canadian/US transmitting complex which supported the Navy, RCAF, RC Sigs and USAF. Transmitting from HMCS Churchill would have been done from this facility. It was situated just a short distance between the navy base and the Fort Churchill military base. For more information on the Naval Radio Station, visit Jerry Proc's excellent site on HMCS Churchill.

This airport was where we landed when we arrived for our stay in Churchill. Unfortunately, Jack had to take the train from Winnipeg. I flew up from Winnipeg, having flown to Winnipeg from Victoria. The second time I flew up there I had two children and another on the way. While flying from Winnipeg Michael spilled his milk all over my leg and unfortunately it was so cold up that the milk actually froze to my slacks. That was cold!!!

This airport was a very busy place when we lived up there. There were planes constantly coming and going up north to deliver large equipment to build the DEW line, which was an early warning system in case Russians sent any missles our way. When they were not taking off or landing they were there on the ground keeping their motors running night and day. This went on for months. One day they stopped and I think everyone wandered what had happened. It was so quiet.

This camp was situated between the Navy Station and Fort Churchill Military Base. I am told that this was the original Canadian Army Military Camp. Later the Americans came up and together the Canadian and Americans built the new camp where we lived.

Some of the shacks that were in the old camp were put on skidders of some kind and moved into the townsite of Churchill. In the townsite they were put up on blocks along the streets and this is where some of the military families lived. Our friends Bev and Ray Morrison moved into one of these shacks before they were able to move into our PMQ. As it happened, them moved in when we moved out.

If you look carefully at the photo you can see a building far back in the background between the two rows of buildings. It has a water tower sticking up behind it. Both Jack and I are pretty sure that is the Navy Base. I hope to find a closer picture or two of that base.

According to Huguette Tricker of North Delta, B.C., that camp was the Foundation Company of Canada Camp. Food was supplied to these folks by Crawley McCraken Co. Huguette's father was second in charge of the construction that included the Port, but mostly the Army quarters. His mother was the only women, other than her husband's boss's wife, living in that camp at the time.

We parents took our children out to see Santa and then put them onto the bus where they were taken to the Duke of Edinburgh School where they had a Christmas Party, visited Santa, received a gift and refreshments and were then put back on the bus which came back over the route and where the parents picked up their kids. It was an exciting day for the kids. Of course not all kids would go on the bus so some parents had to take them over to the school themselves and pick them up later.

This is how Santa would arrive in Fort Churchill while we were there. This was quite an exciting event. Santa and his dog team went by and it was followed by two big military buses.