Joan Winifred Gallant

Country of Origin: England
Ship Name: Letitia
Port of Departure: Liverpool, England
Date of Departure: May 28, 1946
Port of Entry: Pier 21, Halifax, Nova Scotia
Date of Arrival: June 4, 1946
Age on Arrival: 23 years
Age on Arrival (Daughter): 10 months

Joan Winifred Mitchell (affectionately known as Fiffe) the youngest child of James and Elizabeth Mitchell (nee Legassick), was born at home in North London in 1923. Her siblings included one sister, Lily, and four brothers: Jim, Len, Charlie and Jack.  In her late teens she worked for the Ministry of Defense as a secretary. Joan’s story may have ended here.  One evening, Joan finished work late and missed her regular bus home by a few minutes.  The following morning, she learned the bus she missed had been struck by a German bomb, killing all aboard.

In early 1941, she reluctantly accepted her co-workers’ offer to join them after work at the local dance hall: Hammersmith Palace.  It was there she met Les Gallant, a handsome Canadian Air Force soldier.  Les was attending university but on his free evenings, they would go out together.  Les was eventually transferred to Canada for training as a machine gunner.  Upon his return, he found Joan at the same place they had originally met.  After about a year of courtship, they married in January 1945.  Three hours after they took their vows, Les boarded a train bound for East Moor, Yorkshire, where he joined Squadron 432.  Their daughter Pauline was born later that year.  

Another twist almost ended their story:  Joan was residing with her parents in London, when a telegram arrived from the Ministry of Defense.  Les’s Halifax bomber had not returned from a night mission over Germany, leading to the presumption that all crew members had perished.  After a week of mourning, Joan was stunned when she answered a knock on the door and found Les standing there, puzzled by her overwhelming emotion.  He explained that their bomber was attacked and had lost rudder control and one engine during their return flight.  Rather than bailing out over enemy lines, the crew successfully made an emergency crash landing at an American air field on the Southern coast of England.  The mix-up occurred as the American air base commander failed to relay their safe landing to RAF 432 East Moor.

Les completed his last mission in February 1945 and continued working at base until the European conflict concluded in May.  He was deployed to Canada shortly thereafter, receiving his discharge in November 1945.  Meanwhile, Joan faced the hardest decision of her life: moving to a new country.  In May 1946, she and her daughter departed from Liverpool aboard ‘The Letitia’, arriving 8 days later, at Pier 21 in Halifax, Nova Scotia to begin her new life.  

By 1946, Les was working in Moncton, New Brunswick.  It was at the train station there that he welcomed his wife and saw his daughter, Pauline, for the first time.  Joan experienced some difficulty in adjusting to her new in-laws, who only spoke French, and to the cold, harsh Canadian winters.

Over the next 4 years, the family moved as Les pursued his education.  They settled in Sackville, New Brunswick, where Les attended Mount Allison University and they welcomed their second daughter Rosalind.  Thereafter they moved to Halifax, Nova Scotia where Les attended Dalhousie University and their son Philip was born.

Upon graduation they settled in Moncton for 10 years, where Les worked in Human Resources for the CNR Railway. During this time, they had four more children: Michael, Denise, Robert and Raymond. With his growing family, Les accepted a corporate position at CNR’s head office in Montreal, Quebec.  This is where their last daughter Joanie was born.  

After 18 years in Montreal, Joan and Les opted for early retirement and moved back to the Moncton area to build their dream home on a large treed lot on the Shediac River. Following Les’s passing in 1994, Joan moved to the Royal Court Seniors Living in Riverview, New Brunswick where she happily lived out her final years.   Upon Joan’s death in 2016, at the age of 91, she was laid to rest in the family plot in Grande-Digue, New Brunswick.

Joan was a warm, somewhat reserved, and determined woman, who always made the best of what she had. Her motto, which she instilled in her children, was “life is what you make it”.  She found great joy in her children, grandchildren and great grandchildren but always carried a place in her heart for England and the family she left behind. When questioned, on her 91st birthday, if she had any regrets in her life, she paused and answered, “Not a one.” Thank you, Mum, for ingraining in each of us that British spirit of resilience and never giving up.

Your loving Canadian family