Jewell, John Morris Algonquin Royal Canadian 558-10-62

John Morris Jewell was born on January 6, 1918, in , , . John was a son of Andrew Marshall Duncan Jewell from Woodville, Ontario, who worked as a painter and decorator and Muriel Joy (Bruce) Jewell, from Mara Township, Ontario County. John had two brothers called Bob and Bruce and one sister called Winnifred. The family is of English origin and are members of the Presbyterian Church.

Photos collection Jewell family.

Andrew and Muriel Jewell. John, Bob, Bruce en Winnifred.

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The family lived in Woodville, Ontario, where John attended the Woodville Public School and thereafter the Woodville Continuation School.

Woodville Public School, 1926. John is 7th from the left in the 2nd row.

Woodville Continuation School 1932-1933. John is second from the left in the 4th row. Photos from collection Stephen Thomas.

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In 1937 John joined the Canadian Officers Training Corps (C.O.T.C.) unit of the University of Toronto and simultaneously became a student at the Toronto University College, where he successfully obtained his Bachelor of Arts in 1940.

John’s graduation, Bachelor of Arts, 1940.

On September 2, 1940, at the age of 22, John joined the Canadian with the rank of and was later assigned to . He was found to be a healthy young man, 5 feet and 7,5 inches tall, weighing 161 pounds and with grey eyes and brown hair. On his Occupational History Form, John indicated that he had 6 years of mixed farming experience in Ontario and that he wished to engage in farming after the .

John in Uniform. Photos from collection Jewell family.

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On July 31, 1941, John married Marie Helene Desjardins. Following their wedding they went on a honeymoon trip by plane, which took them to , Montreal and the Laurentians. Upon their return, the married couple resided at 28 Fraser Street (Angus Block), North Bay, Ontario.

Clipping from newspaper ‘The Nugget’. From collection Jewell family.

In the morning of June 10, 1943 John embarked on the ‘Empress of Scotland’ in Halifax harbor with the entire Algonquin Regiment, forming part of a total complement of 4500 men. The next morning the ship set sail for the , where the men disembarked on June 19, 1943.

John (middle) with men unknown to author. Photos from collection Jewell family..

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On July 20, 1944, about six weeks after the initial Allied landings in Normandy, John embarked on a ship to . The Algonquin Regiment was divided over three separate ships, being all mixed up with tank units, engineers, etc. After sailing to Portsmouth to form up with a larger convoy for the crossing, the men disembarked in Normandy in the morning of July 25, 1944 near Courseulles, where an emergency harbor had been made by sinking a sizeable number of smaller vessels. The book Warpath: The Story of the Algonquin Regiment, 1939-1945 (Warpath) describes how the Algonquin Regiment made its way from Normandy, through and the to . After receiving it’s ‘baptism of fire’ at the town of Hubert Folie, south of Caen, the many battles in which this Regiment was engaged included the breakthrough at Falaise, the crossings of the Seine and the Leopold Canal, as well as the battle for the North shore of the Scheldt area. These battles took a heavy toll of the Regiment and many of its men lost their life or were severely injured. In December 1944, C.F. (Charlie) Swan of the Algonquin Regiment described in an interview with the newspaper ‘Daily Nugget’ how the Regiment had proven to be a magnificent fighting unit during these battles. During the interview, he mentioned ‘Johnny’ Jewell as a ‘grand fellow’. By that time, John had been promoted to the rank of Captain in the autumn of 1944.

Clipping from newspaper ‘Daily Nugget’, December 1944. From collection Swan family.

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John corresponded regularly with his family back in Canada. In a letter to his mother of October 8, 1944, sent from Belgium, among other things John wrote that he was safe and well and that he got plenty of sleep and food. He also wrote that he found the Belgian people clean, hospitable and very handsome. He further wrote that he had ice cream and cherry pie in Ghent and that he had visited Bruges. John closed the letter with the following words: ‘Pretty soon Woodville and North Bay again for me. Lots of love to you all.’ In the winter of 1944/ 1945, after the Allied advance had stalled following the failed attempt to cross the river at Arnhem, John commanded the Algonquin Regiment’s ‘D’ in Heusden, a town at the Maas river which separated the recently liberated part of the Netherlands from the territory that was still occupied by the German enemy. The chapter of Warpath that describes this episode includes some examples of ‘little odd incidents that will be recalled and retold for years to come’. In one of these John plays the lead, which is described as follows: ‘And the Jam Factory! A treasure-trove of all sorts of things, with an indignant owner who finally even braved the German fire, for the factory was directly on the river bank, to investigate personally his convictions that his stock was disappearing alarmingly. To do this was lèse-majesté, for while Capt. Johnny Jewell commanded “D” Company in Heusden, he was the “laird o’ the manor,” and he stood for no trifling. Heusden was Johnny’s town, and he ran it with an iron hand. It was really not his fault, but fate’s, that, in spite of strict orders against looting, a vagrant buzz- bomb one morning blew in all the store fronts and miraculously transported most of a stationery store into “D” Company’s H.Q,. From then on, it was Johnny’s boast that if it came to a showdown, he could issue twice as much “bumpf” as the , having no paper shortage, nor shortage of ideas, either’. On February 22, 1945, the Algonquin regiment was transported to the Hochwald area in Germany, where they would be deployed within the context of . The objective of this operation was to break through the Siegfried Line, of which the Hochwald forest formed a hinge, in order to be able to cross the Rhine river near Xanten in Germany. After initially penetrating a gap in the Hochwald forest, the Regiment could not advance any further and had to remain there for four days under terrible shelling. In spite of their fatigue, on the fifth night they were ordered to press on with their attack through the Hochwald gap. The original plan was for this attack to be made under the cover of darkness, but now the advance had to be started shortly before dawn.

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The men of ‘D’ Company, some thirty-seven all ranks in strength, were to push forward through the gap, mounted on tanks, in order to take a small train bridge over the Hohe Ley, a small river west of Xanten, which formed an obstruction for Allied armor on its way to the Rhine river. Warpath describes the start of this hazardous adventure as follows: ‘As yet the only enemy reaction had been several flurries of mortar fire in the gap shoulder area. This caused several casualties and complicated the business of mounting the men on the tanks. However, Capt. “Johnny” Jewell, commanding the force, calmly organized his men, and with superb discipline, they got on the iron monsters and prepared to hang on for dear life as they pitched over the rolling ground’. Due to a combination of factors, including stronger (remaining) enemy presence than anticipated and malfunctioning radio contact, ‘D’ Company got cut off from the tanks and other support and was trapped by the enemy. In the 48 hours that followed, several unsuccessful attempts were made to get tanks and patrols forward to them, at the cost of many casualties.

Section of map of the Hochwald gap, shown in Warpath, page 262.

Meanwhile, ‘D’ Company made a heroic stand against enemy armor and infantry, which included capturing a German prisoner of war and demobilizing a German Tiger tank. Once it became evident to the enemy that ‘D’ Company had no tank support, their armor became bolder and

7 they managed to virtually encircle the position. As the men ran out of ammunition, the enemy overran them. As a consequence, John was killed by shell-burst, while others were wounded and many were captured and taken prisoner of war. In the chapter of Warpath that describes this episode, the following is written about John’s tragic loss: ‘The loss of Capt. Jewell we were all to feel keenly. He had always been a cool and unimpassioned leader, accepting without question or demur even the most difficult of tasks, and proving always an example of soldierliness to his men.’ In a letter of March 8, 1945, Elisabeth Desjardins, John’s mother in law, wrote the following to John’s mother: ‘Helene is prostrated with grief and we all are. We every one of us adored him for his upright manhood. Helene had him in her mind constantly and wrote him every day.’ A letter from Lieutenant R.A. Bradburn of the Algonquin Regiment to Mrs. Jewell, dated March 11, 1945, in which he described the circumstances of John’s death, closed with the following words about John: ‘From his work on the days previous I had written a citation for him which now so unfortunately can not go through. He was one of the finest officers I have ever known. All I ever had to do was briefly outline the task and Johnny always just said O.K. and he was on his way. The men worshipped Johnny. No one will ever replace him in my heart.’ John was temporarily buried in Germany, Xanten Sheet 4304 043408 Row I Gr. 3 and was later re-buried at the Groesbeek War Cemetery, near Nijmegen in the Netherlands.

John received the following awards: • 1939-45 Star • France & Germany Star • Defence Medal • War Medal • C.V.S.M. & Clasp

John’s grave in Groesbeek, with the original, wooden cross. Photo from collection Jewell famiy..

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John is commemorated in the Stone Church Cemetery in Beaverton, Ontario, on a stone placed next to his mother and father’s grave. The following text is inscribed in the stone: ‘John Morris Jewell, he gave all for a cause, beloved son of Andrew and Muriel Jewell, born January 6, 1918, killed in action in Germany Mar 3, 1945, he shall not grow old.’

Stone in commemoration of John, next to the grave of his parents, Andrew and Muriel Jewell. Photo taken by Stephen Thomas.

John’s name is inscribed in the archway beneath the Soldiers' Tower Memorial at the University of Toronto. A Memorial Room inside the Tower contains mementoes and artifacts, including the University of Toronto Memorial Book, Second World War 1939-1945. John’s name, place of death and grave are listed on page 33 of this book.

John Morris Jewell is buried at the Groesbeek War Cemetery: Plot XIV, Row D, Grave 16.

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Family members in military service: Michael Ferguson, retired Captain, son of Winnifred Ferguson (neé Jewell) and John Jewell’s nephew.

Life story by: Marko Kuipers, Research Team Faces to Graves.

Sources:

The Jewell family, Ontario, Canada

Stephen Thomas (Jewell family), Ontario, Canada

The Swan family, Alberta, Canada

G.L. Cassidy, Warpath: The Story of the Algonquin Regiment, 1939-1945. Toronto, Ryerson, 1948

Commonwealth War Graves Commission

John Macfie, Sons of the Pioneers, Memories of Veterans of the Algonquin Regiment. Parry Sound (Ontario), The Hay Press, 2001

Library and Archives Canada

Veterans Affairs: Canadian Virtual War Memorial

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