Date of birth:

1905

Date of death:

2001

Nationality:

Canadian

William Alexander (Bill) Ewener was born in London in 1905, and in 1908 emigrated with his family to Canada, where they settled in Sarnia Ontario. His father, Walter Ewener, volunteered in the First World War and was invalided home, after being permanently blinded in a gas attack. Bill became an apprentice machinist for the Grand Trunk Railroad at the age of 12, and later worked in Peru for a number of years in the 1920s and '30s as an engineer in the oil industry, before returning and attending the University of Western Ontario (UWO), in London Ontario, graduating with a B.A. in his early 30s. He also played football and was an undefeated wrestling champion. When the Second World War broke out, he immediately volunteered for active service, at the age of 34. He joined the Royal Canadian Engineers. Gravely wounded at Dieppe (a large-calibre bullet actually grazed his heart), he survived, and landed at Normandy in the days following D-Day. He was wounded a second time in Holland when a munitions truck in his convoy was hit by a shell and caught fire. Bill was standing on the tailgate passing down crates of explosives as fast as he could when the truck blew up. He was thrown a considerable distance but luckily, his friends joked, he landed on his head. After VE Day, he volunteered for duty in the Pacific, but the war there ended before he could be deployed and he was sent back to Canada, arriving ahead of his friends who had requested demobilization instead of redeployment. He later claimed that this had been his plan all along, knowing as well as he did the inefficiency of the military. He returned to UWO, where he attended the medical school, and was a well-known star of the football team. He married Lillian Muriel Bilyea of London, had 3 children, and practised family medicine in London into his 80s. He used to speak very little about the war, unless friends were telling stories (in Europe, he had apparently been voted Most Likely Not To Make It Home, mostly because of his driving), but among the diplomas and licenses on his office wall was his apprenticeship certificate from the Grand Trunk Railroad. He died in 2001 at the age of 96.

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Period:

Second World War (1939-1945)

Rank:

Lieutenant

Unit:

Engineers - Attached to The Royal Hamilton Light Infantry

Awarded on:

October 10th, 1942

Citation:
"Landing with the first wave of attackers from the Royal Hamilton Light Infantry, Lieutenant Ewener suffered chest wounds almost immediately on reaching White Beach at Dieppe, 19 August 1942.
In spite of his wounds he organized his demolition party and attempted to cross the beach and esplanade, although exposed to extremely heavy machine gun fire, in order to reach a road block objective. When more of his men were wounded he carried a 75-pound charge of explosives as far as the Casino.
Lieutenant Ewener continued to show great determination throughout the entire operation and refused to leave until the last groups were taken from the beach."

• Photo 1: Jeff Ewener
• - The Royal Hamilton Light Infantry
  - CanadaGenWeb Cemetery Project