LAC William Joseph Giblin

William Jospeh Giblin was born in 1917 in Newark, New Jersey and moved to Montreal as a child with his family in the late 1920s. In 1941, he married Rita Helen Egli, and they had a daughter, Carolyn Margaret Giblin. In June 1942, 25-year-old William joined the Royal Canadian Air Force as a tradesman. While in the force, he trained as an electrician and went on to serve as a Leading Air Craftsman in the United Kingdom from October 1943 to December 1945.

Upon his return from the Second Word War, William returned to his job as a bookkeeper with Canadian Car and Foundry, a manufacturer of buses, rail cars and aircraft in Montreal. He and his wife Rita had three more children, William (1947), Ronald (1949) and Elaine (1951). He passed away on March 7, 1973, at the age of 55 and is buried in the National Field of Honour, a military cemetery for veterans in Pointe-Claire, Quebec.

Thank you to the Canadian Museum of Immigration at Pier 21 for providing us with a place to preserve William’s story – the place where he boarded a ship to serve his country.

Written by Linda Chiarvesio, Toronto, Ontario, July 2024.