Photo comes Alive in New Westminster B.C.
 

For Canadian History Buffs....a tribute was paid to the most famous photograph to come out of Canada during the early years of World War 11. A stunning memorial was unveiled today on the exact spot where the "Wait For Me Daddy" photo was taken. The original photo was taken on October 01 1940 as the British Columbia Regiment snaked it's way down to the New Westminster waterfront for embarkation to Europe. Along the other side of Eighth Street, families walked along looking for husbands, sons or brothers heading off to war. Among them was 5 year old Warren "Whitey" Bernard and his mother. At the bottom of Eighth and Columbia "Whitey" spotted his father and breaking away from his mother cried out "Wait for me Daddy". The rest is history. The photographer for "The Province Newspaper" took only one picture that day....only one! But according to his grand daughter when he did, he knew he had the winning shot. The photograph was published in Life Magazine and "Whitey" went on throughout the war years helping to sell war bonds for Canada. His parents split up during the later years of the war and as "Whitey" said today, this was the last photo ever taken of them as a family. He is 79 years of age, still married, has 4 children and 4 grand children and is is retired in Tofino, on Vancouver Island.

The first photo is the original famous Canadian picture. The fourth photo shows "Whitey" in the centre of the photo just below his father. The third one shows him just below himself and the second photo shows him with his grand daughter, who is 5 years old (you might have to zoom in to see her) ....the same age as "Whitey" when the original photo was taken. You can google the entire story under "Wait For Me Daddy".

The bonus for today's event was there were 2 remaining veterans from this march, who sat with the dignitaries and gave a short speech. Neither of them had met until 2 days ago, but one of them was a great friend of Whitey's father and was somewhat responsible for getting him into the BCR's.

Enjoy....R.

Might you say an iconic photo
 

Hi Robbert

That is quite the photo and quite the story. That photo is very familiar for me as it is found in several books on Canada in WWII that I have.

To convert such a touching image into a bronze memorial to the time and to the people involved, in fact to a Nation is quite something.

That the father returned from the war safe, gives the touching picture an happy ending.

Did do a search on "Wait For Me Daddy" liked this short write up.

Cheers Phil

PS Think I'll use this in our November MV Club newsletter, good visual images and short story.

Follow up......
 

Thanks Phil for the comments. It was somewhat of an emotional moment. For all the speeches given, and God knows, there were a lot of them (20), for some of the speakers... there was fair amount of "choking up". Whitey especially, when he recalled that this was the last picture of his family together. For me personally, I was always "taken" with the photo ever since as a kid, I saw it in a war time set of Encyclopedia Britannica's (which I still have today). The government is releasing a stamp and 2 dollar coin this week commemorating the photograph. Glad you enjoyed it....Robert

Robert, thanks for sharing this with us. One if those small war stories with a big impact.

Here's some more background: http://globalnews.ca/news/1597175/wa...aning-bernard/

Hanno