Born in St. Jansten, Zeeland Province, Holland. The son of Theophile and Saraphina Martens. In 1926 the family moved to Canada and settled in Jeanette’s Creek area, his father working as a share cropper. A few years later the family would move to Chatham, living on Ursuline Avenue. His father took on the job of custodian at the Ursuline Mother House and the “Pines”, the all girls school. He retired in 1943. Alphonse remembered milking cows and collecting eggs from the hen house. He also remembers when there was a big barn and a “huge vegetable garden on the school property.

He attended Blessed Sacrament school and then Chatham Collegate Institute for two years before taking on seasonal work in sugar beets and tomatoes before starting to work at the Ontario Steel plant.

After the war Alphonse and Isabelle moved to a home on Delaware, then to Pine St. They had six children, Philip, David, [Paul died at two weeks], Theresa (Dent), Paula (Ferris) and Stephen and Christopher. 

Alphonse enlisted when he was twenty years old. He began his basic training at Lachine, PQ at #5 Manning Depot  His first assignment was at Easter Air Command  – Construction and Maintenance unit HCMU. He would later be at Tufts Cove across the bay from Dartmouth, NS. He would later be  assigned to build air drums, hangers, dock, radio towers and general construction work. “When I was eventually discharged at the end of the war I was a brick layer.”

In 1943 Martin was stationed overseas at Newfoundland. While there he had a chance to see and hear Winston Churchill speak and Bob Hope perform, when his plane stopped at Botwood, Nfld. when his plane stopped to refuel 

He was then transferred to Gander Nfld., at the time the largest airport in the world with the longest runways a stop for the ferried planes crossing the Atlantic. It was well serving there that by chance  he went on a five day leave to Grand Falls to see a movie and afterward went to the dance at the Knight’s of Columbus Hall there. Lucky that he did as that was where he met his future wife Isabelle – love at first sight. She was also in the RCAF, stationed in Saskatchewan.

The following year he had a thirty day leave and a pass to fly to see her. He had the engagement ring. They spent Christmas together making plans for a June wedding in Alymer, Ontario. The following year they were both discharged 

They would eventually have a small 15 acre farm in Raleigh, Twsp., Kent Co. Isabelle passed away in 1994 and Alphonse 19 June, 2004.

 

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Sources

CFF-FD, WSWA, LM-LP

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