Canada’s oldest Second World War veteran laid to rest in British Columbia
Global News
Reuben Sinclair was born on Dec. 5, 1911, and was already 31 by the time he joined the Royal Canadian Air Force in 1942.
Family and friends gathered in New Westminster on Tuesday to honour the life of a man believed to be Canada’s oldest Second World War veteran.
Reuben Sinclair was born on Dec. 5, 1911, in Lipton, Sask., and is being remembered as a loving husband, father and friend wh0 lived a remarkable life.
“Dad was a man of character, a man of honour, always positive, a man of great respect, a man who always showed his appreciation, someone who was always helping others, especially the less fortunate,” his daughter Karen Sinclair told a service at the Schara Tzedeck Cemetery.
“How so very, very proud he was to have served his country. Whenever I asked him, ‘What’s your best accomplishment, dad?’ I always thought maybe it would be us kids. Serving his country, that was his proudest accomplishment.”
Sinclair was already 31 by the time he joined the Royal Canadian Air Force in 1942.
He served as a trainer, teaching bomber pilots to land in the dark on blacked-out runways.
“He inspired me to do the right thing even when there are clearly easier paths to take,” Sinclair’s grandson David Lipetz said.
“Many times has told the story how he walked away from his government treasury job with a lifelong pension where he would have been set up because he was compelled to join the war. He could not sit back and watch what was happening in Europe from afar.”