3069 W.A. McColl’s Diary

1 April 52 At 0030 this morning Danny Loomis pulled an inspection here in the Frigate. It seems the boys over in 4 Sqn got together and cooked up the gag. They planned it quite well and told Danny a “planted” wallet with green dye on it had just been stolen and that the thief…

28 Mar 52 The exam timetable is up now so it looks as if they are here at last. It hardly seems like three months since Christmas. This week the third years have been taking over the occasional parade- we really need the practice. Tonight the gymnastic competition was run off; about 11 or 12…

16 Mar 52 This morning the padre gave us an excellent talk on the sweeping advances Christianity has made during the past 500 years or so compared with the say 4 000 to 5000 years history of the human race. He always has something to say which promote a good deal of thinking. 17 Mar…

9 Mar 52 Church parade today was into Kingston and like yesterday we had a dandy march in with a good deal of singing. There’s no way of expressing how much easier and shorter the march is when there’s a good song to march to. Once again I went to Chalmers St United to hear…

25 Feb 52 Tonight, Mr. Edgar McInnis, President of the Canadian Institute of International Affairs, (and also author of the Upper School History text) spoke to us on “Nationalism in Asia”. It was a very interesting lecture. The part I remember was that in India there are about 30 million people and 90 million of…

22 Feb 52 This evening we climbed aboard a bus and headed for Toronto to compete with U of T. at swimming, squash, rifle and revolver shooting. It always seems like a terribly long trip especially when everyone is so eager to get there. We finally arrived and I buzzed up to Webber’s and ate…

17 Feb 52 Lt. Col Bannister gave us a dandy sermon this morning in the so called “little things”. He is a wonderful padre. Went swimming and got completely pooped out then went over to room 250 where they were showing a good movie called “School for Danger”- a British restricted film of two special…

15 Feb 52 This morning we paraded all the way over to Grant Hall for a special memorial service and then tramped the long way back again for lunch. Then after a couple of hours, in we marched again to the Cross of Sacrifice for a parade of all of Kingston garrison’s personnel both active…

1 Feb 52 I had put in a request to be excused drill parade Saturday in order to go to Toronto by army bus with the basketball team and even said that I couldn’t afford a train ticket but the request came back today marked “NOT GRANTED”. Little incidents like that go a long way…

26 Jan 52 I got over my 21st birthday yesterday without much difficulty. Pat sent me a little box of fudge and I got a nice letter from mother. Went in to the Queen’s gym tonight and saw our boys lose 54-52 after having led all the way. They couldn’t seem to score during the…

21 Jan 52 Right after classes today I went to bed and slept right through until 2207 when Morrison woke me up. I was S.D.C. and had to take roll call at 2210. It was a rush but I did it on time. 22 Jan 52 Today I got a dandy big fruit cake from…

14 Jan 52 I’ve worked myself back into routine again. Have started going to gym team practices and we’re putting on a short display this week. It’s amazing how one can get out of shape from staying away for a while. Church parade into town turned out well as some of us went to Chalmers…