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Library and Archives Canada reunites a North Carolina woman with the memory of the father she never knew

Ottawa, March 22, 2006 -- This coming Friday, Library and Archives Canada will officially give Ms. Anne Victoria Brown, from Louisburg, North Carolina, a wartime memento and a baby ring that had been lost to her for over 60 years.

Ms. Brown's father, Canadian Warrant Officer William Caldwell, was killed in 1941 when his ship, the SS Nerissa, was torpedoed by a German U-boat and sank off the coast of Scotland. Caldwell carried his newborn daughter's baby ring with his identification discs, which were found washed ashore. These were sent back to Canada, misfiled by an army clerk and never reached the family until now.

The discs and the ring were discovered in military files at Library and Archives Canada in Ottawa, Ontario, during the preparation of an exhibition on the Second World War. Thanks to the curator of the exhibition, as well as investigative reporters from Ottawa and North Carolina, Ms. Brown was contacted.

To honour the memory of Warrant Officer William Caldwell, Lieutenant Colonel Jamie Robertson, military attaché at the Canadian Embassy in Washington, will officially hand over the family heirloom to Ms. Brown at a ceremony this week in Raleigh, North Carolina.

"Had it not been for the discovery of a Canadian wartime hero's files in our archives, a daughter and a father might never have been reunited," said Mr. Ian E. Wilson, Librarian and Archivist of Canada. "It is an honour for Library and Archives Canada to have been part of this momentous occasion."

The event will be held Friday, March 24, 2006 at 12:00 p.m. at the North Carolina Museum of History. Ms. Brown will be presented with this family keepsake on the eve of her 65th birthday.

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Information:
Pauline M. Portelance
Media Relations Officer, Library and Archives Canada
Telephone: 613-996-6128;
Email: media@lac-bac.gc.ca

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