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102-year-old Victoria veteran is the last of his military peers
Paul Dunae recently turned 102, the last survivor of a group of friends who served in the Second World War.
“I’m like the last rose of summer,” he said with a smile in an interview at Veterans Memorial Lodge.
Born in 1924 in a sod-covered shack near Rabbit Lake, Sask., Dunae was one of five children.
He quit school in Grade 10 and a few years later joined the Royal Canadian Air Force at the age of 18, following in the footsteps of his older brother, Alex.
He said he was still doing his initial training at the air-force station in Mossbank, Sask., when officials came and took him out of class to tell him that Alex had been killed.
Paul said his brother died in an air raid over Brunswick while with the RAF in the Pathfinders Squadron. He’s buried in Brookwood Cemetery, about 20 miles outside of London. Dunae Lake in northern Saskatchewan is named after him.
He and Alex were very close, Dunae said. “That was the worst part of my life,” he said softly.
Dunae later headed off to England himself on the liner Queen Elizabeth, which was used as a troop-transfer ship.
He didn’t end up going on any missions over Germany, because the war ended before he had finished his operational training, but he served with an air force search-and-rescue crew as a wireless operator, which was on the alert for downed air crew.
Dunae recalled being in London with some friends and seeing people whose homes had been destroyed by bombs having to sleep in the subway. “It was terrible.”
Another brother, Pete, also served in the war before being medically discharged.
Paul Dunae is one of the veterans associated with Veterans Memorial Lodge who are being featured in the latest version of Heroes Among Us — personal stories published in the Times Colonist about those who have served their country, with the goal of raising $600,000 for lodge amenities.
He doesn’t live at the lodge — he’s still in his own home — but attends the lodge’s day program each week, where he enjoys exercise, games and conversation.
When hostilities ended in Europe, he and other Canadians stationed with him in Dumfries, Scotland, volunteered to head to Japan — but the atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki before they could go.
After the war, when he was at college in Calgary, he and two friends agreed they would sign up for the navy at HMCS Tecumseh, the naval-reserve division in the city, in 1946.
His friends never turned up, however. “I was the only one that showed up at Tecumseh to join,” he said with a laugh.
Dunae said he didn’t stay with the air force because it wasn’t hiring at the time, but the navy was and he wanted to be in the service.
Between his wartime service in the air force and his time in the navy, he spent 25 years with the military.
He left in 1968 at the age of 43 when he had reached the rank of chief petty officer.
His naval training was at CFB Esquimalt, and his duties would take him to Korea aboard HMCS Sioux in the last part of the Korean War, but again he didn’t see any military action.
“We never did any gunning at all,” he said. “Lucky guy.”
He was, however, battered by a typhoon in Korea during his time there, and recalls having to strap himself in his bunk.
During his navy days, he sailed around the world, saw the pyramids and visited many countries.
Afterwards, he worked at various jobs in Victoria, including in sales at Sears, in banking, in real estate and a seven-year stint helping to run the bookstore at the University of Victoria. He also took the time to earn his high-school diploma at the age of 45 through Camosun College.
Along the way, he spent 63 years married to Ann, had a son and a daughter, and is now a grandfather of four and great-grandfather of two.
He was widowed 15 years ago.
Despite limited vision, Dunae still plays golf at Gorge Vale Golf Course in the weekly Wednesday scramble format.
He’s been a member there for 75 years, and at his peak was a 12 handicap.
Dunae said club members decided last year that he would no longer have to pay club dues, which he appreciates.
When his son asked him how he can play golf when he can’t see everything, he said the rest of his foursome helps with that.
“I’ve got three other guys who can see where the ball’s going,” he said with a chuckle.
As for his secret to longevity, he said it’s simple. “I smoke a pipe and drink scotch.”
The goal of the $600,000 Heroes Among Us fundraising campaign is to renovate six bathing rooms at the lodge to make them safer and more functional for veterans and other senior residents, with each renovation costing about $100,000.
A campaign last year to support lodge residents raised money for 45 electric beds and a similar number of specialty mattresses. You can donate online at broadmeadcare.com/heroes-among-us , or by phone at 250-220-4438.
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