Dunstan Michael Stewart was born in Montreal, QC, in 1923. On his 17^th birthday, he enlisted as a Private in the Royal Highland Regiment of Canada, Black Watch 2nd Division (Infantry). His mother was not happy! The next day, she stormed into Black Watch Headquarters and demanded that her son be dismissed due to his young age. However, Mrs. Stewart relented when the Major explained the impact it would have on her son, saying, “If I dismiss him, he will never forgive you for the rest of his life…” and so, Mike was allowed to stay in the Black Watch, where he eventually held the rank of Lance Corporal. 

Mike’s first overseas posting was in England where invasion by Germany was a constant threat until the tide of war began to turn. Shortly after the D-Day Allied Invasion, Mike’s Black Watch unit crossed the Channel into France in July 1944. 

As his unit was advancing past Calais, Mike was wounded and evacuated back to England. Luckily, his physical injuries were non life threatening. However, when he was hit, Mike had seen his best friend in the unit blown up. This left psychological scars he had to deal with for the rest of his life.

British-born Mary Audrey Edwards was also a teenager during World War II, and like her future husband (Michael Stewart), she was impatient to join the war effort. Girls had to be 17 and a half years old and have their parents’ written permission to get into the Women’s Land Army, whose members were assigned throughout the country, replacing male agricultural and market-gardening workers who enlisted in the Armed Forces.

Land Army women were not military personnel, so they did not receive the fringe benefits of military service. They did receive a small payment for their services (10 pence an hour) from which money was deducted at source toward their accommodations. They were billeted either in villages close to where they worked or on the actual farms. 

Audrey remembered having to start her day at 5 a.m. and working till midnight during the hay-making time. On the thousand-acre dairy farm where Audrey worked, the girls had to get to the cows to milk them either out on a hillside or two or three miles away. After working on the dairy farm for five months, Audrey became seriously ill. When she recovered, she went to a more pleasant spot: a Land Army hostel consisting of about 40 girls who went out in teams on market-gardening assignments, such as weeding and harvesting potatoes. 

It was an ordinary day in May 1945, and Audrey’s team was busy working when someone walked in and said, “Guess what? The war’s over!” In celebration, the girls quit for the day. The next day, everyone went to London to join the crowds milling about in Trafalgar Square. 

Audrey continued working with the Land Army that summer; by August, there was more to celebrate: V. J. Day or Victory in Japan. The next evening, Audrey and her friends headed for the village pub, where they joined crowds of local people and Allied servicemen celebrating the end of hostilities. It was noisy and hot, so Audrey wandered outside to sit in the cool evening air. She was joined by a lanky Canadian, Lance Corporal Mike Stewart. After they had chatted a while, Mike asked her where she lived. Audrey mentioned the Land Army hostel at Lower Bourne. And how would she get there? “I suppose I’ll walk,” she replied. “OK,” said Mike, “I guess I’ll walk along with you.”

In a way, Audrey and Mike’s lives here in Canada were as eventful as the wartime era when they met and married. Here in Canada, they raised a son, Bruce, and by 1961 or ‘62, Mike was hired to run one of Nordair’s airports at Frobisher, also being appointed a Justice of the Peace as a sideline occupation. 

While at Frobisher, Audrey worked at the post office and an all-purpose general store, frequented by both Inuits and newcomers. Later, the couple lived in Alabama before returning to Canada to settle in Champlain Township. Mike played an active role in St-Gregoire Parish, Vankleek Hill.

He died on October 5, 2002, the result of an automobile accident.

Audrey served terms as president of the Cassburn Women’s Institute, and president of the Vankleek Hill and District Horticultural Society. She volunteered for over 16 years with the local Mental Health Group, a small but dedicated band of women bringing friendship and cheer to the Pleasant Rest Nursing Home, L’Orignal (now called Champlain Residence).

She passed away in 2015.