Second World War veteran in N.B. has ceremony held in his honour

One of the Maritimes’ last living veterans of the Second World War was the main focus of a special ceremony on Wednesday.

Veteran Angus Hamilton was surprised to have an entire event dedicated to honouring his service in the war.

The ceremony was held at Christ Church in Fredericton and organized by the Golden Club.

"All the planning that went on behind it, inviting my family and just making quite a big event of it,” Hamilton said. 

Hamilton joined the Air Force in 1941 as a radar technician. He says he lost four friends during the war.

"It was just a matter of when, everybody my age was joining up,” Hamilton said. “If they didn't join up, they were going to get sent to boot camp for training, which was the last thing in the world that I wanted."

After training in Toronto, Halifax and Ireland, Hamilton was deployed to India in 1942.

He was close by when docks were bombed by Japanese soldiers.

"I was several miles from the docks but they did bomb two or three times, and then a night fighter squadron was transferred from the Middle East to Kolkata to defend Kolkata,” Hamilton recalled.

“The first night that the squadron was there, the junior pilot, most of them were officers, but he was called a flight sergeant. [He] was sent up and the radar picked up the bombers properly, guided them in behind them, his radar worked so that he could get right close to them."

For Remembrance Day, Hamilton is asking people to remember those who never made it home.

"I'm the token service person. There was a million of them, in World War II, and they should think of all of them instead of me," Hamilton said.

At 100 years old, Hamilton’s advice is don't sweat the small stuff.

"Don't waste time fussing about things. I don't carry grudges, I don't get mad at people, somebody does something stupid I say 'oh,' and I start laughing."

Hamilton has marched in many Remembrance Day ceremonies, but he's waiting to check the weather before he decides whether he'll attend this year's ceremony.