L/Cpl Leland M. Pratt

Leland M. Pratt of Belmont left Halifax from Pier 21 aboard the Andes of Britain in May of 1941, aged 17. On board ship Lee was in charge of two grenade guns. Lee he was in the Army Provost Corps [police service] when he met his future wife, Audrey Smith, a young woman from England. Previously Lee had served with the North Nova Scotia Highlanders, Artillery and Provost Corps. He was in one of the first boats to land in France on D-Day.

The couple tell two different stories of how they met but agree it was at a dance in Eastleigh's old town hall. Audrey took a sudden dislike to him. When Leland asked Audrey out later she said she had to work and was embarrassed when she met him on the street. Audrey said, "He kept coming around and the rest is history."

Lee proposed "on the eve of his departure for Normandy Beaches, June 1944." Because he was underage he had to get permission from his mother to get married and have her send an engagement ring from Canada as he couldn't buy a diamond ring in England. Leland and Audrey got married on March 28, 1945.

Audrey was 18 at the time of the wedding. Lee was granted a twelve-day leave to be married in March 1945. Audrey was busy working and preparing for the big day. She saved her coupons for the material for the dresses. Coupons for food rations were gathered or given as a wedding gift. The family was able to have the wedding reception at the Pirelli social club. They had a "full sit down meal, consisting of beef tongue and vegetables". She still has the receipt for catering for 45 people at a cost of £819p. Two waitresses brought the food in a taxi.

Following the wedding Lee had a couple more days leave before he returned to France. Two days before VE day Lee and his troop were taken prisoners-of-war. After his release, Lee was stationed in Utrecht, Holland but he got a couple of leaves to visit Audrey before he returned to Canada in January 1946. Audrey joined Leland in Canada on August 19, 1946.

Audrey and Lee had a son born in England who died shortly after birth. They had two children in Canada; David born in 1949 and Darlene born in 1951.

Lee and Audrey built a small house in Belmont on an acre lot they bought for $200. They nearly froze to death the first winter. They bathed "in front of the stove, in a little round tub. If you bent the wrong way you could burn yourself." Audrey also had problems with the weather, the wood stove and getting used to an outhouse. They didn't have any electricity for a while and used a hand pump for water.

Audrey became a Canadian citizen in 1982 and Audrey and Leland still live in Belmont, Nova Scotia.