Remembering Our Veterans: 2025 Veteran Highlights
Each year for Veterans’ Week, we research and highlight at least one new veteran. This year, we decided to add two new Rosslanders to our temporary exhibit “Their Finest Hour” - Telegrapher Alexander Turner and Private Jimmy Wright. We are honoured to tell a small part of their stories.
Telegrapher Alexander Edward Turner (Service Number - V4592)
Alexander Edward “Alec” Turner was born in 1924 in England to parents Ernest and Lilian Turner. Alec emigrated to Canada in 1929 with his parents and older brother Leonard, settling in Rossland by 1931. Growing up, he enjoyed skiing and skating and was a star on the Rossland High School basketball team. Graduating in 1941, Alec enlisted in the Royal Canadian Navy as a boy seaman since he was only 17. This meant that he would be trained and remain at a base in Canada until he was of age. Alec was based out of the HMCS Nitinat in Esquimalt and trained to be a telegrapher. Alec’s older brother Leonard also enlisted in the army, serving as a lance bombardier.
Although eligible for overseas service in 1942, Alec was not deployed until November 1944. He served on HMCS Gatineau during the Battle of the Atlantic. After the war, he remained in the Navy for three additional years. From December 1945 to July 1947, he served on HMCS Uganda, the first Canadian naval ship to complete a postwar goodwill world tour. Alec was discharged in March 1949.
Alec married Violet Chesney in 1948, and together they had three daughters. After his discharge, the family returned to Rossland before moving to Nelway in 1955. In 1966, Alec and Violet settled in Salmo. Alec spent 32 years as a Customs Officer and was active in the Royal Canadian Legion and Salmo Volunteer Fire Department. He passed away in 2014 at age 90.
Private Jimmy Wright (Service Number - K69879)
Alexander James Nichol Wright was born in Rossland on July 7, 1923 to parents Isabel Nichol and James Wright. Better known as Jimmy, he was active in sports growing up, focusing largely on swimming, skiing, hockey, and golf. Jimmy originally enlisted in the Royal Canadian Air Force in 1941 after he graduated high school. Like many other young men signing up for the Air Force, he dreamed of being a pilot. However, this was not in Jimmy’s future: partway through training, he contracted a bad sinus infection that he could not get rid of, and he was discharged in March 1942.
Still wanting to do his part, Jimmy enlisted in the Army in October 1942, joining the 1st Battalion of the Canadian Scottish Regiment. He was deployed overseas in September 1943 and spent a total of 270 days in France before his tragic death on June 9, 1944. While he survived the landing at Juno Beach, he was killed during an offensive near Putot-en-Bessin that prevented the German army from retaking the beaches. He was one of 61 enlisted soldiers from the battalion to be killed during the Normandy invasion and the days that followed. This was the battalion’s highest casualties at this point in the war.
Jimmy was killed just shy of his 22nd birthday, never to return home again. He was laid to rest at the Bény-Sur-Mer Canadian Military Cemetery in Reviers, France.
Contribute your own memories/experiences of Rossland Veterans, Service Personnel, or the World Wars:
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