“You don’t know how long I’ll be in the army yet because they found out I have kidney trouble. They asked me today if I was feeling sore in my kidneys. I said no. I told them a lie. I would like to go home but would sooner see that Sarah gets money every month.
“I don’t care for myself. I am willing to go overseas. I’ll have to die some day anyway.”
George Badger of Cote First Nation wrote those words on Sept. 5, 1941, in a letter to his mother, Sarah Badger, while still in training in Vernon, B.C.
Only 26 months later, as a Japanese prisoner of war, he died from malaria and avitaminosis at the Sham Shui Po Camp Hospital in Hong Kong. His remains are buried in the Sai Wan War Cemetery in Hong Kong.
Badger, who had 861 days of service, including 739 days overseas, was awarded a Canadian Volunteer Service Pacific Star War Medal and Clasp for having served in the 1939-1945 campaign. A Saskatchewan body of water located north of LaRonge and Stanley Mission was named Badger Lake in honour of George Badger. A banner in his memory is among the banners of district veterans that are displayed in the community each year near Remembrance Day by the Kamsack branch of the Royal Canadian Legion.
Born March 25, 1922, at Cote First Nation, a son of Peter Badger and Sarah Genaille, George Charles Badger had enlisted as a private in the Canadian Army on June 28, 1941, in Regina. He was placed with the Winnipeg Grenadiers.
George’s father, Peter Badger, also served during the Second World War. He was with the 16/22nd Saskatchewan Horse regiment and had been a troopmate of the late Ed Barton of Kamsack, serving in Europe. He returned home after the war. George’s siblings included Peter, Hector and Mary Badger and Elizabeth Tourangeau, the mother of Karen Tourangeau, the current president of the Kamsack branch of the Royal Canadian Legion.
Before going overseas, George had married Sarah (later Caldwell) of Birch River, Man. and while George was serving, she gave birth to their son, also named George. In time, their son, had two daughters, Roberta and Nadine. George’s widow later remarried and moved to Saskatoon, with her daughters.
George Junior died in a house fire in Veregin in the 1980s. His widow died in the early 2000s.
Letters written by Badger to his mother in August and September 1941 while he was still in training in British Columbia were kept by his sister Elizabeth and are now in the possession of his niece. In those letters he asks his family to look after his wife.
“It’s no use to worry about me because I am getting along fine,” one of his letters says. “I’ll see you again sometime and I will be with my dad in a month’s time anyway. That’s what they told me. This is just a basic training centre. There are many here who are going to the 16/22nd.
“I’ve got a rifle and am training how to fight with a bayonet. By the time I get home, I will be an expert at it. Please don’t tell me that you’re not happy. It nearly makes me cry to hear that. I would sooner hear you say that you’re happy and same with Sarah and try and be good to her. Try help her every way you can.
“I want you to send me some writing paper,” Badger said, explaining that the paper he had access to was not lined which made it difficult to write on. He told his mother that his ankle had been hurting and enquired about his sister Elizabeth “across the river.” He asked his mother to give his address to his sister so that she would be able to write to him.
“I never forget her and the little fellow,” he said, adding that he is “getting fat” on apples and plums which he takes from an orchard in Vernon. “I think it’s fun to run away from the owner of the orchard. The officers are very good here. They never say anything to us, just one corporal here is always mad at me because I tease him, but I am not afraid of him. He is too old to be afraid of.
“Well mother, I haven’t got much time. I have to wash my clothes yet this evening before I go to bed and I’ve got to answer Mary’s letter yet, and my wife’s. I am putting them in the same envelope because I’ve just got one stamp.
“Stay with Sarah, please for my sake.
“I hope this letter finds you all well and don’t worry about me too much.”
For their information, Badger sent his mother a typewritten list of the duties of a kitchen helper which said that the helpers begin work at 6:30 a.m. by making coffee and toast for senior students and staff. They take breakfast to all the dining rooms and then clean the dining rooms. Later, all the fridges are washed, and the shelves and floors are washed with soda and water at least twice a week. Butter is to be cut for meals and potatoes are to be made ready in time for meals. The chores end with all garbage and empty boxes to be put in garbage bins in the hallway, and the hallways and bins are to be scrubbed daily. The 10:30 p.m. shift is to wash mats when needed.
In another letter, Badger says he is pleased that he has “the best wife of all the soldiers” because he always gets letters and parcels. Other soldiers tell him that he must have a good wife, and he replies by telling them that “you couldn’t find a better one.”
He told his mother that although he never has much news, he writes “just to show you I never forget you and everybody at home.”
In his letter dated Sept. 19, Badger said he expected to be moving out of Vernon the next week.
“We might be in Ottawa in about a month from now,” he said. “There are some boys here who say they know you. They are from north of Pelly.”
He said that another soldier had been sent to a guard house for having been drunk in town and the military police had picked him up. He said he too would have joined him in the guard house but some of the boys had carried him home.
“There’s no danger of me getting into trouble because we have real good corporals.”
According to information from Veterans Affairs Canada, members of “C” Force travelled from the east across Canada by CNR troop train, picking up reinforcements enroute. Stops included Montreal, Ottawa, Winnipeg, Melville, Saskatoon, Edmonton, Jasper and Vancouver, arriving in Vancouver on Oct. 27.
All members embarked from Vancouver on the Ships Awatea and Prince Robert, the information said. Awatea was a New Zealand liner, and the Prince Robert was a converted cruiser. “C” Company of the Rifles was assigned to the Prince Robert, while everyone else boarded the Awatea. The ships sailed from Vancouver on Oct. 27 and arrived in Hong Kong on Nov. 16, having made brief stops at Honolulu and Manila.
Equipment earmarked for “C” Force use was loaded on the ship Don Jose but would never reach Hong Kong as it was rerouted to Manila when hostilities commenced. On arrival, all troops were quartered at Nanking Barracks, Sham Shui Po Camp in Kowloon.
Included in the papers retained by Badger’s family is a clipping from an unknown newspaper which carries the following headline: “Hong Kong prisoner’s Christmas card dated December 1941, reaches Canada October 1945.”
“Pte. George Badger’s Christmas cared, sent in 1941 to his mother, having been detained by Japanese censors in Hong Kong from December 1941 to September 1945, finally reached Kamsack on October 5,” the article states. “The card was a home-made one, having a photo of Hong Kong harbour at night with myriads of lights dotting the mountainside.”
The text includes a Christmas wish written in pidgin English.
Badger’s name is listed among the veterans at the National Métis Veterans Memorial Monument in Batoche and although the date and cause of Badger’s death are known, no other particulars were available from Veterans’ Affairs. His remains are at the Sai Wan War Cemetery in Hong Kong with those who were killed during the Battle of Hong Kong or died later as prisoners of war during the Japanese occupation. This includes 173 members of “C” Force.
The remains of those who had died as prisoners in Formosa (now Taiwan) were brought to Hong Kong for burial at Sai Wan in 1946. There are 1,505 Commonwealth casualties of the Second World War buried or commemorated at Sai Wan War Cemetery. A total of 444 of the burials are unidentified. At the entrance of the cemetery stands the Sai Wan Memorial bearing the names of more than 2,000 Commonwealth servicemen who died in the defence of Hong Kong or subsequently in captivity and who have no known grave.
Although no members of Badger’s immediate family have had opportunity to visit his gravesite in Hong Kong, a visit by his niece remains a possibility.
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