*Bar hours are at the discretion of our executive. Bar
Steward may close early if no members are present.
Monday meeting nights will
close promptly at 6 PM.
No alcohol will be served before 11:00am. Our club rooms
are now non-smoking.
SITE NOTES
Somedocuments on
this website are in Adobe Acrobat format. To obtain your FREE
copy of Acrobat Reader,
click on the icon.
This website is NOT Firefox or Netscape friendly. It is best
viewed using Internet Explorer 6.x or higher. Screen settings at 32
bit, 1280x1024. Netscape and Firefox may not present JavaScript, colors, text formatting and other
features properly. Users may
need to adjust your browser to view in IE format.
Give A Gift Of
Comradeship
Are you stumped as to what to give that special
friend or family member?
Do you know someone who would be a great
addition to the Legion?
HOW ABOUT A GIFT OF
MEMBERSHIP!
SEE YOUR MEMBERSHIP CHAIRMAN
FOR DETAILS!
WE WOULD LIKE
EVERYONE
WHO VISIT'S,
TO RETURN TO US
SAFELY.
PLEASE DON'T DRINK AND DRIVE!
Advertisement
About The Royal Canadian Legion And #637
The Royal Canadian Legion is a non-profit organization whose purposes
and objectives include: providing support to veterans, ex-service
members and their families; perpetuating the tradition of Remembrance;
and, participating in programs designed to improve Canadians general
quality of life. To the end it makes the Royal Canadian Legion the
greatest organization in the world!
SYMBOLS
The crown is the St.
Edward Crown, used by the Sovereign.
The red maple leaf on the
white background is derived from the Canadian coat of arms.
Our pledge and motto Memoriam Eorum Retinebimus (We Will Remember Them), is in
the outside circle. It is in Latin, a language generally used on
badges, crests and banners of national and military emblems.
The word "Legion", in
gold, and the background in blue represents the official colours of
the Legion.
The Poppy is the symbol
of remembrance.
This badge has been
approved by the Sovereign.
The blood red poppy of
Flanders is immortalized as an emblem of sacrifice and remembrance
for the honouring of the thousands who laid down their lives for
those ideals which we, as Canadians, cherish.
The poppy calls upon us to remember not only those who have died,
but those they left dependent, and those who still suffer from
honourable wounds and disabilities. The poppy challenges us to
serve in peace, as in war, to help those who need our help, and to
protect those who need our protection.
The torch is symbolic of justice, honour and freedom for which our
comrades fought and died. We who are left must pledge ourselves to
hold it high, lest we break faith with those who died.
Sir William Stephenson Royal Canadian Legion Branch #637, is located at
Simcoe Street N., just south of Taunton Road, in Oshawa Ontario. The Sir
William Stephenson Branch was chartered on May 2, 1989, named to honour
the war hero and master spy who was also known as the ‘Man Called
Intrepid’. The branch houses Sir William Stephenson's medals, which were
generously donated, and a personal telegram granting permission to
honour him in this way.
Badge of
Knighthood
L to R
Order of Canada, Military Cross, Distinguished Flying
Cross, 1914-1915 Star, General Service Medal,
WW1 Victory Medal with MID, Queen Elizabeth II Jubilee Medal, Commander of the Legion of Honour (France),
Croix de Guerrewith Palms (Belgian), Presidential
Medal of Merit (US), Distinguished Service Medal
(US)
(b at Winnipeg, Man 11 Jan 1896;
d in Bermuda
31 Jan 1989)
Sir
William Samuel Stephenson, inventor, businessman, master spy
Born in the Point
Douglas area of Winnipeg, Manitoba, he left school at a
young age. In 1916 he volunteered for the 101st
Battalion (Winnipeg Light Infantry), CEF. He earned a
field promotion to Sergeant and a medal for battling in
the trenches before he turned 19. While recovering from
being gassed in 1916, Stephenson learned to fly and then
transferred to the British Royal Flying Corps on August
16, 1917. Posted to 73 Squadron on February 9, 1918,
Stephenson flew the British Sopwith Camel fighter
biplane and scored twelve victories, among them was
Lothar von Richthofen, the younger brother of the famous
Red Baron, before he was shot down and captured by the
Germans on July 28, 1918.
By the end of
World War I he had achieved the rank of Captain and
earned the Distinguished Flying Cross and the Military
Cross.
Stephenson flew as a fighter pilot in WWI, winning several medals for
bravery. While a student at the University of Manitoba, he invented the
wirephoto and then a radio facsimile method of transmitting pictures
without need of telephone or telegraph wires. He moved to Britain in
1921 to develop and market this invention to newspapers and rapidly
earned a fortune and an entrée to influential political circles in
London. Thus, for example, he served on a royal commission in the 1930s
to plan the development of India's natural resources.
At
the beginning of WWII, Stephenson was placed in charge of British
Security Co-ordination (counterespionage) in the Western Hemisphere,
with headquarters in New York C (where the telegraphic address was
INTREPID - later popularized as Stephenson's code name). His
organization's activities ranged from censoring transatlantic mail,
breaking letter codes (which exposed at least one German spy in the US)
and forging diplomatic documents, to obtaining Vichy French and Italian
military codes, protecting against sabotage of American factories
producing munitions for Britain, and training (at CAMP X, near Oshawa,
Ont) allied agents for surreptitious entry into Nazi-occupied Europe.
Although Stephenson was knighted by King George VI and awarded the US
Medal for Merit, not much was known about his war services until the
publication of H. Montgomery Hyde's The Quiet Canadian (1962).
William Stevenson (no relative to Stephenson) later published 2 books
about him, A Man Called Intrepid (1977) and Intrepid's Last
Case (1983).The novelist Ian Fleming, a
member of his wartime staff, is said to have adopted Stephenson as a
model for the character ‘M’ in the James Bond books.
As
important as our support of veterans and their dependants is, our branch
members find the time and energy to make significant contributions to
our community.
Sir William Stephenson Royal Canadian Legion Branch #637,
support other community based organizations financially, using funds
raised through clubhouse operations, Poppy sales, raffles, events and break open
tickets. Each year, hundreds of thousands of dollars are donated
to other community and service organizations. As well as financial
support, the hall is the main meeting place
for our veterans
and their dependants.
As well as support for others,
Branch #637 operate,
or help to organize and operate many community programs. These include
public safety programs, programs for seniors, transportation, sport and
youth programs.
Sir
William Samuel Stephenson, CC, MC, DFC
