Ninety-seven-year-old Second World War veteran George Chow might need some kind of back support these days.
Nothing to do with his advancing years, however. It has more to do with the row of medals that continues to burgeon along his chest.
Already resplendent with numerous war medals, the Canadian Forces Decoration, the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Medal and the Medal of Legion of Honour (from the French government), Chow was presented with yet another honour recently in Richmond.
At the Richmond branch of the Royal Canadian Legion – at Bridgeport and Shell roads – Chow, a 59-year veteran of the legion, was belatedly awarded his 50-year legion medal.
And it was made extra special by the Richmond branch, which also presented Chow with his 55-year bar, for the medal.
Born in Victoria in 1921, Chow went to the recruiting centre at the Bay Street Armoury in his home town to sign up, two months before his 19th birthday and without his parent’s knowledge.
After training in Vancouver and Ontario, he was shipped to Halifax to board a ship to England.
During the Normandy Invasion, Chow was a member of the 2nd Army Group Royal Artillery and he was lucky when they came off the landing craft, as the water was only nine inches deep.
They made their way inland to Caen and other regions of France, before heading to Belgium, Germany and Holland.
After the victory in Europe, Chow volunteered for the conflict in the Pacific Ocean, before his new assignment was cut short due to the atomic bomb being dropped in Japan.
After the war, Chow became a gunnery instructor at the Bessborough Armoury in Vancouver and reached the rank of Battery Sergeant Major before being honourably discharged in 1963.
