Elizabeth Elliott was born July 20, 1924; she grew up in Toronto during the 1930s and 1940s. Even with the Great Depression, she remembers her father as a driven man, one who always took his family to the countryside, even during the tough times. As a result, Elizabeth recalls that she and her siblings were in good health in spite of the limitations they faced; her father even found a way to get the family a piano, which helped to set Elizabeth’s path in life. Economic circumstances forced Elizabeth from school at age 16; as she remembers it, her parents needed her to grow up and to take care of herself, which she did. The family saw what was happening in wartime London, and this motivated Elizabeth and her older brothers to enlist. She took basic training and was sent to the BCATP base in Trenton, Ontario, where she spent the duration of the war. Elizabeth was kept there in part because of her singing talent, and she found herself singing at funerals – and to keep her fellow soldiers’ spirits up. That talent also saw her meet a piano player named Douglas Elliott, and she would eventually marry the young man that the military sent to accompany her. On base Elizabeth was a typist, and she helped to keep things running smoothly. One task was the typing up of condolence letters, a sad but necessary task during a long and difficult war. VE Day brought celebration and sadness, and for Elizabeth and Douglas it created the opportunity to marry; they travelled cross country to Vancouver, and looked to get on with it. Married, they built their lives and families in postwar Toronto, where they fell into the rhythm of civilian life.
We met Elizabeth at the Sunnybrook Veterans’ Wing, where she was interviewed by a delegation of students and graduates in July 2018.
