Bunston, Larry

Larry Bunston was born March 25, 1923 in Saskatoon, but early in his life his father made the decision to take the family to Ontario, hopefully to make a better life for his family.  Larry grew up in different parts of Ontario, notably Oshawa and Brantford, where he and his four brothers played sports and kept on their parents’ good side.  With the coming of the war, all four brothers enlisted, and Larry and another brother  made it overseas.  Larry went into the army, and after training at Camp Borden, he made his way down east, where a troop ship awaited him in Halifax.  In England he was trained as a despatch rider, with motorcycle and truck driving lessons in his future.  He crossed over to France shortly after D-Day, where he found himself in many precarious positions as he fulfilled his driving duties.  Several times he was in search of broken down vehicles and almost fell into German hands.  Wounded near the end of the war, Larry was sent back to England and his future wife, and later they made their way together back to Canada, falling into the rhythm of Canada’s postwar boom.

We met Larry at the Tony Stacey Centre for Veterans’ Care in the east end of Toronto, where Larry was interviewed by Mr. Masters and Grade 12 student Navid Sarshar. We thank Jay Burford of the Royal Canadian Legion and Andy Barros at Tony Stacey for their help in setting up this connection.

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