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Mr. John Coldwell peacefully passed away from us on Monday, July 13, 2009 at the age of 92 years. John was predeceased by his wife Pat of fifty years in 1995 and son Brian (Donna) of Kamloops in 2005. John was born in North Battleford, Saskatchewan to Anthony and Linda Jane (nee Scott) Coldwell, where he grew up on a small rural farm with his three sisters, Myrtle, Marcella and Peggy, all of whom predeceased him. John joined the army in 1941 as a member of the Canadian Corp. of Engineers, and was deployed to London, England. In 1943 he was reassigned to the Seaforth Highlanders and shipped to the Italian front. |
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| John was injured three times, and eventually, in a battle in the Po Valley in Italy, a mortar shell injured his leg resulting in his being shipped back England. John was returned subsequently to Calgary, Alberta for his discharge. On Christmas Eve of 1943, John had met a bubbly Irish girl named Emily Gitrapp (later to be known as Pat) at a train station in Windsor. They were married on June 6, 1945 in Slough, England after his injury return. It was almost a year before Pat was able to join him in Canada when John was undergoing his discharge. They moved to Edmonton, where John worked for a short time before they decided to seek their fortune in the Yukon frontier. John moved to Whitehorse in the winter of 1946 to find employment, whilst his young bride waited in Edmonton for the imminent birth of their first child, Brian. Pat and Brian then migrated to the Yukon in the spring of 1947 and the young family settled in Whitehorse, where they went on to raise five sons and a daughter. John spent his career in Yukon working for various federal departments in various capacities and was most proud of achieving his 1st Class Steam Engineer’s Certificate. John will be deeply missed by his children: Dennis of Whitehorse, Michael of Prince George, Cormac (Kim) of Vernon, Danny (Kelly) of Kelowna, Janet Gutowski (Walter) of Whitehorse, and daughter in-law Donna Kuromi of Kamloops, and his many grandchildren and great grandchildren. Services will be held at Sacred Heart Cathedral on Saturday, July 18 at 11:00 AM. Donations may be made to the Sacred Heart Parish. ********************************** |
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