All My Love and Then Some: The Letters of Cpl. Polly G. Meilman RCAF (WD) to Her Parents, 1942-1944
- Edited by Margaret Melhorn
- Friesen Press
- 2024, 230 pages
- ISBN: 9781038308320
While there is considerable information about the war efforts of Canadian men in the Second World War, there isn’t nearly as much information pertaining to the achievements and sacrifices made by Canadian women. This is one reason why the book “All My Love and Then Some: The Letters of Cpl. Polly G. Meilman RCAF (WD) to Her Parents, 1942-1944″ is so important.
“All My Love and Then Some” is a fascinating glimpse into life in the Women’s Division (WD) of the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF). Pauline (Polly) Gillmore Meilman describes the role women filled in noncombat roles previously held only by men. Meilman joined the RCAF when she was 18 years old and served from September 1942 until January 1946. The RCAF was the “first branch of the Canadian services to actively recruit women for roles other than nursing,” which freed up men for “combat-related duties.”
Meilman had basic training in Toronto in September 1942. She served in the RCAF (WD) in Summerside, P.E.I., until September 1945 when she was transferred to Halifax and then discharged in January 1946.
This look at the incredible service women made to the war effort during the Second World War is the result of numerous letters Meilman sent home to her parents during her time in the RCAF. Many of these letters survived because she asked her mother to keep them. She had planned to write a book about her experiences but passed away before this occurred.
In memory of her mother, Margaret Melhorn compiled and prepared more than 80 of Meilman’s letters for this book.
Melhorn kept her mother’s letters “for family history purposes,” but realized “the letters were a valuable source of information about the daily life and experiences of a young WD during one of the most momentous periods in 20th century Canadian history.” The Canadian War Museum must have felt the same way as the letters now reside there.
“All My Love and Then Some” makes an important contribution to Canadian history and we have Meilman, with the help of her daughter, Margaret Melhorn, to thank for it.
Ice in Their Veins: Women’s Relentless Pursuit of the Puck
In his well-researched book “Ice in Their Veins: Women’s Relentless Pursuit of the Puck,” Ian Kennedy provides a look at women’s hockey and the sport’s history.
- Ian Kennedy
- Tidewater Press
- 2024, 215 pages
- ISBN: 9781990160424
The skilled and exciting sport of women’s hockey has been a long time in the making and required the perseverance and dedication of many people. In his well-researched book “Ice in Their Veins: Women’s Relentless Pursuit of the Puck,” Ian Kennedy provides an interesting look at women’s hockey including the sport’s history.
Read about some of the leagues, teams and players including the Eastern Ladies Hockey League founded in Montreal in 1915 and which entertained large crowds during the war. Players like Albertine Lapensee, whose talent and skill drew “crowds by the thousands whenever she stepped on the ice,” made money for the promoters. When she requested to be paid and was refused, she left the game after the 1917 season when she was only 18 years old.
Other exceptional players include Hilda Ranscombe, Justine Blainey and Cathy Phillips. I enjoyed reading about Bev Beaver, who played hockey on a pond in the 1950s. She hid the fact she was a girl by “wearing her brothers’ old clothes.” She also played for a team of “Six Nations boys” put together by her uncle.
Teams covered include the Preston Rivulettes, who won 10 Ontario championships from 1931 to 1940 and played 350 games of which they only lost two.
Women pioneered the game and the use of equipment. While many associate the goalie mask with Jacques Plante, Corinne Hardman “started wearing a baseball catcher’s mask at practice.” Later Elizabeth Graham, a goalie with Queen’s University, wore a fencing mask in a game as early as 1926.
While much of the book pertains to women’s hockey in Canada, it also follows the sport in other countries including Australia and Europe where hockey was played during the 1920s and 1930s.
Whether your interests are with hockey, women’s hockey or sports history, you will enjoy Ian Kennedy’s “Ice in Their Veins,” which includes a foreword by Geraldine Heaney and an afterword by Sami Jo Small.
This post was originally published on here
