Colin Beal is photographed in 2000. As an 18-year-old in the British Army in 1943, Mr. Beal was wounded in the leg by a grenade and at one point lay dying in a hospital that was under attack by the Japanese.courtesy Alison Beal
At opposite ends of the country, two families are contemplating how thankful they are that in 1943 – in a sweltering jungle in Burma during the Second World War – their fathers’ worlds managed to collide.
In a First Person essay written for The Globe and Mail to commemorate Remembrance Day last November, Telkwa, B.C., native Alison Beal, 63, penned a heartfelt story about her father, Colin Beal, who as an 18-year-old in the British Army was wounded in the leg by a grenade and at one point lay dying in a hospital that was under attack by the Japanese.
Ms. Beal wrote that her dad learned that a Canadian pilot named Jack Webb had risked his own life to get him to safety. He never saw the mysterious Canadian again and rarely spoke about his ordeal, so the family let it lie.
Canadian pilot Jack Webb risked his own life to get Mr. Beal to safety.courtesy Linda Sutherland
Many years later – and by a complete fluke – Colin Beal (who had since immigrated to Canada with his wife and eight kids) ran into Webb in the cafeteria of Prudential Insurance in Pickering, Ont., where both men now worked. When they made the connection of their shared life history, they shook hands and once again went their separate ways.
But Alison Beal did not forget.
“I have often wondered if Jack Webb’s family ever knew of his incredible bravery and compassion and his gift of life to that boy who would have died but for him,” she wrote in her essay. “Without Jack’s belief that a sick and broken lad from Dorset should have a chance to live, my father would have joined the lost souls of the Forgotten Army in the jungles of Burma (now Myanmar).”
After the war, Mr. Beal emigrated to Canada with his wife and eight kids – pictured here in 1963.courtesy Alison Beal
Her father, who suffered from Alzheimer’s, died in 2016.
Her story ran Nov. 7, and two weeks later she received a “beautiful” letter in the mail from Linda Sutherland, Webb’s 67-year-old daughter, who lives in Brampton, Ont.
“I was so thrilled when I found out she was trying to reach us,” said Ms. Sutherland, who learned of the essay from her sister-in-law. “It was so uplifting and nice to hear from Colin’s family, especially around this time of year. It reminded us again of what my dad did and of how selfless so many of those men were.”
Like Ms. Beal’s father, Mr. Webb never talked about the war “and the horrors of it,” Ms. Sutherland explained over the phone. “I knew my father as a daughter does growing up … but didn’t know what he was like when he was younger. When he joined the air force he was probably only 21 or 22." Webb died in June, 1996.
Colin and Jenny Beal are pictured in September, 2015. Mr. Beal, who suffered from Alzheimer’s, died in 2016.courtesy Alison Beal
“Alison’s story added a whole other layer to my dad, and for that I am forever grateful.”
The two women have stayed in touch via e-mail and both hope their families will cross paths some time in the future. “We are going to Vancouver this summer, so maybe we’ll connect somehow," Ms. Sutherland said.
Ms. Beal said she would love that, but given that her home in Telkwa is 1,400 kilometres north of Vancouver, it’s unlikely.
"But you never know,” she added with a laugh. “Given the mysterious ways our families’ worlds have collided over the years, I guess anything is possible.”
Gayle MacDonald