The Veteran on the Canadian $10.00 bill

[Brian Wolfe]

Hello Everyone,

I just ran onto this short story regarding the veteran that is pictured on the back of the Canadian Ten Dollar bill and wanted to share this with the membership especially as tomorrow is November 11. I was not sure where to post this so if I have erred I hope someone will move the post. A photo of the area of the ten dollar bill with this veteran follows the writeup.

If you look at the back right-hand side of a Canadian $10 bill, you will see an old veteran standing at attention near the Ottawa War memorial. His name is Robert Metcalfe and he died last month at the age of 90.

There are several good articals on the internet regarding this topic and it looks like everyone has "stolen" from an original as they are almost all identical. Rahter than add to the crime of the theft of someones else's work I will summarize.

Born in England he joined the 400,000 members of the BEF in France and found themselves out numbered by the German forces. While he was tending to a wounded comrade he was hit in the legs by shrapnel. While he was being transported to the hospital by ambulance they came under fire from a German tank. He survived this to be evacuated from Dunkirk on the HMS Grenade, two of the sister ships to the Grenade were sunk.

After he recovered he was sent to North Africa en route the ship he was chased by the German battleship, Bismark. After North Africa he served in Italy where he met and married his wife, a lieutenant and physiotherapist who was serving in a Canadian hospital.

After the war they settled in Chatham, Ontario where he went into politics and became warden (chairman) of the county. On retirement he and his wife moved to Ottawa, Ontario and at the age of 80 wrote a book about his experiences. One day out of the blue he received a call from a government official asking him to go downtown for a photo session. He was not told why they wanted the photo and he had no idea he would be featured on the Canadian Ten Dollar Bill.

I hope you liked the story.

Cheers

Brian

[KC13]

Very late to the topic, but part of the story is dubious. He would never have been chased by Bismark. Bismark made one combat sortie into the Atlantic where for the most part it was the hunted. It never chased any Allied convoys before it was caught and sunk.