Last year marked the 80th anniversary of D-Day, the Allied land invasion of Normandy which initiated the liberation of Europe from the Nazi regime. The Second World War managed to disrupt Alta Lake’s idyllic summers, and for one of its longtime families, June 6, 1944 would prove to be especially memorable.
Margaret Bellamy (née Clarke) was born in 1946 and started journeying up to Alta Lake with her family a few weeks later. Her grandmother, Grace Woollard, had first arrived at Alta Lake along the Pemberton Trail in 1912 with her friend, Grace Archibald, and her brother, Ernie Archibald, who was working for the Pacific Great Eastern Railway.
In an oral history from 2012, Margaret recounted how her mother, Betty Clarke (née Woollard), and father, Douglas Clarke, spent summers at Alta Lake growing up. Their fathers were colleagues at the Shaughnessy Military Hospital, and the two families had become good friends. Betty was Alta Lake School’s second teacher, replacing Margaret Partridge in 1936. After Betty and Douglas’ marriage in 1941, Douglas departed for the war, and Betty decided to buy a cabin at the south end of Alta Lake, rather than stay in Vancouver. Wanting to be closer to her daughter and grandchild, Grace Woollard sold her cabin on the east side of the lake, and purchased a neighbouring cabin at the southern end.
Prior to her father’s 33rd birthday on June 6, 1944, soon to be cemented in history as D-Day, Margaret’s mother sensed something major was about to occur concerning the war. She knew her husband had been stationed in the south of England for “months and months and months and months,” and Vancouver newspapers had long discussed an impending invasion, but no one knew when or where this assault would take place. Although Margaret was not born until 1946, she shared her family’s memories of the day as they were later told to her.
The first Canadian soldiers landed on Juno Beach just before 10 p.m. Vancouver time on June 5. The Germans reported the amphibious assault on Normandy at 9:37 p.m. Vancouver time, and Allied sources would later verify the accounts. As news of the invasion finally crackled through the radio, Betty had no indication as to whether her husband was involved in the battle.
While casualties and updates came through, Margaret described how her older sister Susanne, then a toddler, dropped her beautiful Cowichan sweater down the outhouse. With tears running down her face, Betty fished the soiled sweater out with a stick. She brought it down to the lake to rinse it out, all while frantically trying to listen to the radio. Very little information was coming through, and the short clips that were audible were followed by 20 minutes of maddening static.
“It was a bad day. And all this being my father’s birthday,” said Margaret. Thankfully, her father survived the war and would have many more birthdays, passing away in 1986 at the age of 74. His ashes were spread at Alta Lake.
Logan Roberts is the Summer Program Coordinator at the Whistler Museum through the Young Canada Works Program.
