Fellow high school student Bob Carswell lived by Lake Ontario in New Toronto for seventeen years; he now lives in Mimico

Our most recent Malcolm Campbell High School picnic in Toronto was at Bob Carswell’s home on Royal York Road in Mimico. In previous years, we’ve had picnics at Bob’s previous home by Lake Ontario. Scott Munro and Jaan Pill joined Bob for our picnic on May 20, 2025.

Previously we’ve had picnics in Bob Carswell’s backyard. On May 20th, however, it was too cold to meet outside. Jaan Pill photo

Bob has commented at a previous post:

In July, 2022 after 17 years by the lake, I moved to a self-contained small home built out of a one-car garage on Royal York Road. It was built for me by good friends and designed for someone who has to move around in an office chair like I have to do. The isolation is great except when the snow is not cleared for a week. We have had a lot of snow this winter of 2025.

Our next MCHS picnic will be at Lynn and Mike Legge’s house in London. We’ve also been organizing picnics in various locations in Southwestern Ontario in recent years.

Bob Carswell, May 20, 2025. Jaan Pill photo

I was interested to see a photo, in Bob’s house, of his parents which I think would have been taken after they had moved to Kingston from Saraguay.

Bob commented that the same architect who had designed the house in Saraguay also designed the house where the couple lived for thirty years in Kingston.

In thinking about Bob’s parents, I was reminded of a previous post:

Flying Officer John McKinley Carswell, pilot RAF, engaged to WAAF Assist. Section Officer and station cypher officer, Patricia Leonard. They were married in August 1942. The RCAF photo, taken at RAF Wigtown in Scotland in early 1942 was shot for later release with the couple’s wedding announcement in the Westmount and Montreal newspapers in Canada. They were married for 63 years before her death in 2005. Image courtesy of Bob Carswell

Bob Carswell has shared a comment and photos (about Garland Station and Second World War) at a previous post seeking details about MCHS grad Peter Parsons

At that post, Bob Carswell comments:

Both my parents survived the war, my father among other jobs, served as a co-pilot of Lancaster bomber over Poland and Germany and my mother as an early plotter who survived a direct bomb hit on the Ops Building at RAF Biggin Hill that was virtually destroyed during the first year of the war when fighter stations were the first target of the Luftwaffe. That was 80 years ago now. RAF Biggin Hill was never put out of action even after something like 25 to 50 bombings.

John and Pat Carswell. Photo source: Bob Carswell

Fortunately, my mother suffered through PTSD early in the war whereas it only hit my father in 1947. My parents were married in 1942 and by November my mother was too pregnant to get into her uniform for much longer so resigned her commission to join her husband who had been sent to Harrogate into a new job. By then she had been senior WAAF officer at RAF Wigtown where she met my father in 1941 the day of her arrival after a year of the worst bombing just 8 miles from Croydon, which is south of London.

Both RAF Wigtown and Harrogate where I was born were safe towns during WWII and not targets suitable for the early Luftwaffe bombers so after a year in the war zones people were moved to these locations and others like them in the northern UK where they could recover and do their work peacefully before being recycled for another year in the battle zones.

Each station had a total contingent of 250 WAAF which my mother was commanding by age 22 as a Section Officer (equal in rank to a Lieutenant), having arrived there in 1941 as the station cypher officer. If you enter the name Pat Leonard in the Google search engine you will find lots of photos and details of her war service there which lasted two years and seven months.