Historian tracks down family of N.B. veteran George Mann and returns his WW II medals

CBC

20 hours ago

After four months of searching, a Saskatchewan historian finally got the address he needed to return the Second World War medals that belonged to a New Brunswick veteran.
John Brady McDonald has now been in touch with the family of veteran George Mann, who was born in Liverpool in 1905 but immigrated to Canada after the war.
According to McDonald, Mann was a sailor with the Royal Navy, serving in the Royal Fleet Auxiliary.
After he immigrated to Canada, he married Alice Margaret in Saint John. McDonald's research doesn't say where Mann specifically lived, only that he lived in New Brunswick.
For his Second World War service, Mann received the 1939-1945 Star, the Atlantic Star for specific service in the Atlantic Ocean, and the Africa Star for being a part of the campaign in Africa.
McDonald has been returning veterans' medals and other possessions to their families since 2022 as a way of honouring those who served. The majority of medals he's received have been sent to him by people who stumble across them.
He has been trying to find Mann's relatives since April and said it wasn't an easy task. Mann didn't have any children of his own, so it took some effort to find a living relative.
It was just last week when he finally found one, and McDonald said it wouldn't have been possible without community support, including from people who read a CBC News story about his search.
"As a result of the story CBC did, I received hundreds of emails of people who went on their own onto the internet, onto different genealogy websites and provided a ton of information," he said.
McDonald said someone who had better access to a genealogy website was able to track down some of Mann's relatives living in the U.K.
He obtained a list of different names that he cross-referenced until he got in contact with Jane Crane, the daughter of Mann's niece.
McDonald initially approached Erica Burton, the niece, who showed Craig the article written about Mann and put her in contact with McDonald.
After confirming that Craig and Burton were related to Mann, McDonald said, he felt a sense of accomplishment because the medals had finally found their home.
"For me, when I make that connection, there's this feeling of the job is nearly done," he said. "The mission is nearly done. It's one step closer."
McDonald mailed the medals to the family on Monday, and according to the tracker of the parcel, the shipping will take between a week and 10 days to arrive in Liverpool, where Craig and the rest of Mann's family live.
Craig, the great-niece of Mann, said her family knew about him but didn't know about his service during the war or about the medals he received.
She said it was a "lovely surprise" when McDonald first approached her mother, who showed her the article about Mann and told her the history behind her great-uncle.
"Once he moved [to Canada], I don't believe there was any contact," she said.
Craig explained that Mann briefly returned to Liverpool after the war, but once he moved to Canada, he didn't keep in touch with his family in the U.K.
Mann came from a big family and had five siblings. Craig's grandmother Josephine was Mann's sister.
According to Craig, the closest living family member of Mann's is her mother, Craig's main source of information about Mann.
Despite that, Craig said everyone in the family is excited to receive Mann's medals, which will be kept mainly at Craig's mother's house but will be passed around the rest of the family, too.
"We are all very happy," she said. "They will be passed [to] all of our youngers members of the family as well. And they can have look at them, and then they'll be able to piece together all this story and this information."