War medals returned after 54 years
Published: May 31, 2006
Wilf Wrigglesworth hadn’t seen his war medals since 1952. On a train headed for Korea, a military runner came through Wrigglesworth’s car and informed the Canadian Soldier that he had been pulled off the draft list and instead, he was commissioned for a special officer’s course. He was to become a Canadian Military Police Investigator. In addition to conducting criminal investigations, Wrigglesworth and his division were handpicked to form what has been called the first of the Canadian Peacekeepers.
“Every time I was on the draft list for overseas it got cancelled. I was to go to Europe, but then VE day came along. I was to go over into the Pacific when VJ day came along. Then when I was on my way to Korea, they pulled me off. Apparently at that time, without us knowing, they were picking the soldiers who they thought could be peacemakers.”
Wrigglesworth got off the train bound for Korea, but his small pack of personal belongings continued on. Inside that pack were two medals Wrigglesworth had been awarded — a Canadian Volunteer Service Medal for World War Two, and a 39-45 War Medal, both lost for the next 54 years.
It wasn’t until May 13, 2006, the day after Wrigglesworth’s 80th birthday, that he was finally presented his medals. OPP officer Pat Armstrong had learned of the AWOL awards and contacted military officials in Ottawa in the hopes of aquiring replacements for Wrigglesworth.
“The OPP arrested me on the Thursday at the corner while I was doing the crossing. They took me out to the detachment and had a big birthday cake for me…on Saturday I was presented with my medals.”
On May 13th, a birthday party was thrown for Wrigglesworth near his home at Meneset on the Lake. Over 130 friends and family members, including 30 OPP officers and great-grandchildren who he’d never before met, came together to celebrate Wrigglesworth and his life of dedicated public service.
“That night was kind of a blur. There was so much going on. All of my family was here and I met my two great-grandsons for the first time. They stuck the little baby in my arms. I said, ‘I’ll crush him,’ but they told me, ‘learn how to hold him’ and they took off; scared the living heck out of me.”
Wrigglesworth has spent his entire life serving and protecting. At the age of 17, he joined the military, and after a few years of service, he moved on to the Toronto Police Department where he was relied on to help make the city a safer place.
“Those were pretty rough days there. We were in fights most nights with the gangs. Things had just gotten out of hand during the war, so our job when I started on the force was to clean that up, and make the streets safe. Our orders from the chief were go down the streets, clean them up,” said Wrigglesworth.
“If [the gangs] don’t respect you, make them fear you. So those were our orders and that’s what we did. It took us about two years to clean up the problem.”
After five-years of fighting off crime and gangs, Wrigglesworth once again felt the itch for military service.
“It was tough; I still got a few scars on my knuckles from fighting. When you do that type of thing you become very hard after a while. I realized after about five years that I was becoming mean. I thought, I got to get out of here. So I went back in the military.”
It was during his service in the German region of Westphalia that he remembers holding off communists, retraining divisions of the German army and investigating military crimes. For his service, Wrigglesworth was awarded a third medal, a Special Services medal for his role in peacemaking and peacekeeping.
“That’s why that same medal is now being used for Afghanistan, Bosnia and all the countries that Canadian troops go into. It’s called a Special Services medal, but it’s actually a peacekeeping peacemaking medal. So we were the first ones to get it from NATO.”
Although Wrigglesworth didn’t lose his Special Services medal like the others, he was never presented the token of appreciation. Instead, it was sent in the mail. These days, Wrigglesworth said, deserving men and women are presented the awards during a ceremony.
That was another part of his eighth decade bash, he was presented his awards by his law enforcement family.
“I guess all together there were about 30 of the OPP officers that came in for my birthday because police are a very close knit family, which I thought was wonderful.”
Wriggleswoth said it wasn’t a choice to become a police officer, it was in his blood. Relatives in England work as London Bobbies and Palace Horse Guards, and even his son and grandson have followed him into the Toronto and Ontario Provincial Police services. But try as he might, he couldn’t even let retirement lead him out of law enforcement, or keep him at home. Since 1994, Wrigglesworth has kept working hard at two jobs he loves. Some of his weekends are spent as a guard at the OPP holding cells, while weekdays bring him to the five-points intersection in Goderich. That’s where he is a guardian of local children working as a crossing guard.
“Another thing that really pleased me was that I had a bunch of the kids from the corner where I do the crossing, and they brought me birthday cards. That’s why I do the corner down there. Those are the things that make it all worth while.”
Throughout his life, Wrigglesworth has received countless accolades, awards and recognition, but the ones he treasures most are the thanks he gets from family and friends, but especially the kids he’s grown to know over his 10 years crossing. He said of the kids,
“If you can affect one life positively, your existence on Earth has been worthwhile.”
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