Just discovered my wife's grandfather served in FSSF - N.J. Ingram/Winnipeg MB/5-1

Hi. Great forum!

Let me introduce myself. I am a school teacher from Winnipeg, MB. I am an avid historian/collector with an interest in all things WW2, especially Canadian. One project of mine has been to help my wife and her family learn more about the history of her grandfather - Norman Joseph Ingram, who served during WW2. He passed away back in 1990, and regrettably I never had a chance to meet him. I would like to preserve and honour his history and memory for future generations of our family.

I only discovered very recently that my wife's grandfather served with the FSSF during the war. Until very recently, all I really knew is that he served with the Perth Regiment late in the war (we found an excellent picture of him as a Perth from 1945 at the Canadian Archives website). His wife, a war-bride from Holland, is still alive and living here in Winnipeg. She likes to tell stories of the war, but usually of her own experiences in Holland. She didn't meet her husband until 1945, so understandably doesn't know (or remember) a lot of the details of his service. She did know that he was with the Perth Regiment when they met in 1945, but she also knew that he was with in some other outfits before that. As I had never heard anything else to suggest otherwise, I had assumed he had served with the Perths throughout Italy and into Northwest Europe.

Just recently, however, my wife was relaying to me some of the latest stories her grandmother was telling her. She spoke of her husband serving in some kind of Special Service with the Americans during the war. This immediately caught my attention. My wife pointed to a battle dress tunic I have on display (PPCLI, 1st Canadian Infantry Division), and asked about the red formation patch on the sleeve. She said her grandmother described some kind of red patch that he wore. I immediately sought out a picture of the red FSSF shoulder patch, and my wife exclaimed immediately, "Yes, that's it!". She then went on to tell me that her grandfather had a badge like that displayed on the wall of the house for a number of years and that her and her sister, although taking note of it never really gave it much thought.

Wow! I started to think of how I might be able to confirm his service with the FSSF. I immediately started digging online and within about an hour came across a site where a gentleman had scanned the complete FSSF roster from a book. I downloaded the file and excitedly searched through the roster an found an entry of H.J. Ingram, 6-1, Winnipeg Manitoba. Although his initials were N.J. instead of H.J., this had to be my wife's grandfather. Perhaps this was just an error in the book. It is quite easy to mistake an N for an H, especially from handwriting, and it would be quite easy for an editor to overlook. My curiosity was driving me to keep looking and to learn more about the book that this roster came from. I learned it was written by Robert D. Burhans and did a search online to see if it was available anywhere. I found a bunch of copies at Abebooks. Only when I saw a picture did it occur to me that I might already own this book. A while back, my wife's grandmother had given me a pile of old books that her husband had owned. Mixed in with these was on old book on the FSSF that I hadn't given much attention to, largely due to its age and condition (remember, at the time I believed he had served with the Perth Regiment throughout the War). I dug out the old books and, sure enough it was the very book by Burhans. I immediately flipped to the roster at the back. Although I had had this book for a couple of years, it was the first time I had looke through the roster. There at the back, corrected in my wife's grandfather's own handwriting, was the entry , N.J. Ingram, Winnipeg MB! Curiously, the company number typed after his name was 5-1 in this book (as opposed to 6-1 in the scan I found online). In any case, this confirmed it for me! He was actually a member of the FSSF!

Just the other day, I discovered this website. I thought it might be a great place to learn more. Perhaps there are some other FSSF members from Manitoba out there. Perhaps there are some FSSF members who might remember Norman Ingram. I would like to try to learn as much as I can about the FSSF. In particular, I would like to learn more about some of the assignments given to FSSF 5-1.

If anyone can offer any information, it would be greatly appreciated! Thanks for your time, and cheers!

Craig
Winnipeg