Newman Street: The little street that went to war

© 2020, Christian Cassidy

Newman St., Dec. 4, 1943, Winnipeg Tribune

Pine Street, now Valour Road, is probably the most famous "wartime street" in the city. It, of course, was renamed after three men who once lived on it earned Victoria Crosses in World War I.

Just four blocks east on Portage Avenue is another street that has a great story to tell.

Newman Street is barely a block long and stretches from Portage Avenue to Wolseley Avenue. It had just 51 houses on it and by the end of 1943 had sent 31 of its sons off to war.

I found out about Newman Street in a December 4, 1943 column by Winnipeg Tribune columnist Lillian Gibbons. You can read her full column above.

As you can imagine, this created a strong bond between neighbours.

A Newman Street Neighbours club was formed to provide support to each other. Local children held events to raise money for charities like the Red Cross. At the convenience store at Portage and Newman you could pick up forms to buy war bonds.

The faces of Newman Street

It is impossible to say how many of the Newman Street men died or were seriously wounded as there was no follow up article about them. The daily death and injury rolls released by the War Office didn't usually include street addresses - it was up to local papers to insert the details. (Besides, some of the men did not still live on Newman Street, their parents did.)

For what it is worth, I could find no soldiers' obituaries that mention Newman Street.

The Hendersons

July 6, 1942, Winnipeg Tribune

One of the stranger wartime watches on Newman Street involved missionaries, not soldiers.

Alfred George (A. G.) Henderson and his wife, Allison, were missionaries. He was a doctor and she a nurse. The couple were en route to a medical posting in the Belgian Congo aboard the Egyptian ship, S S Zimzam, in April 1941, when a German raider captured it, took the passengers prisoner, and scuttled the ship.

Mrs. Henderson was formerly Allison Jamieson of 508 Newman Street. The Jamiesons still lived at the street and received word in early June that the Zimzam's passengers had been sent to France and would be interred in prison for the remainder of the war. A U.S. consulate official was able to ascertain that Dr. and Mrs. Henderson were alive and well after their arrival.

In June 1942, Mrs. Henderson was part of an "exchange of nationals" prisoner release that saw ten Canadian women released from German jails. Six were from the Zimzam. (Another Manitoba woman released in the exchange was Dr. Isabella McTavish of Newdale, Manitoba.)

The capture of the Zimzam was international news and Mrs. Henderson, who returned home to live with her parents for a year or so after her release, related her ordeal at numerous speaking engagements.

As for Dr. Henderson, he was transferred to different facilities over the years. He escaped from a prison camp at Belfort, France with 15 other men in January 1943 and they managed to cross the border into Switzerland.

According to Henderson, conditions in the refugee camp they were placed in were as bad as the prison camp as Switzerland, being a non-noncombatant, did not have the Red Cross on its soil to provide care packages and other services. It wasn't until he was recruited to be a doctor for some wounded British soldiers that his conditions improved somewhat.

When the border into France reopened in October 1944, the British left and he went with them.

Dr. Henderson had reached Montreal by late November. Mrs. Henderson, who was continuing her medical studies in the U.S., went to meet him there.

John Edelson

March 9, 1942, Winnipeg Tribune

One of the men whose name came up in several daily war lists issued from Ottawa was John Edelson of 503 Newman Street.

Edelson was born in 1917 and grew up on Newman Street with his parents, Maurice and Margaret, and two siblings. He attended Wolseley, Isaac Brock and Gordon Bell schools. He joined the Dominion Bank as a clerk in 1935 and was a member of the Winnipeg Canoe Club.

Edelson was single and still living at home when he enlisted with the R.C.A.F. in 1941. He attended No. 7 Bombing and Gunnery School near Dauphin and received is air observer badge in December 1941.

His parents notified the Winnipeg Tribune in early March 1942 that Sgt. Observer Edelson had arrived safely overseas.

February 12, 1943, Winnipeg Free Press

On January 17, 1943, Edelson appeared on the daily war list as “missing in action” after his plane was shot down on a bombing mission over Berlin. It wasn’t until a month later that he was noted as “previously reported as missing, now prisoner of war” section. It turns out that a German spotlight tracked his parachute as he came down to earth and was captured. The International Red Cross found him at a German POW camp and notified Canadian authorities.

The Edelsons likely found comfort with members of the Neighbours Club, particularly with the Boyds at number 500. Of their three sons who were serving, Robert S. Boyd, was being held prisoner in Hong Kong. Margaret Edelson also became the vice president of the Winnipeg branch of the POW Relatives’ Association.

May 25, 1945, Winnipeg Free Press

On the daily war list of May 4, 1945, Edelson was reported as "Previously Prisoner, Now Safe in U.K.". He was one of 130 R.C.A.F. prisoners of war repatriated from their German prison camp.

Edelson returned to Winnipeg and began working for Stephen's Paint and married Lois. According to his obituary, he was transferred to their Calgary office in 1954 before going on to have a career with Investors.

John Edelson died at Calgary in January 2011 at the age of 94.

Robert S. Boyd of 500 Newman Street also survived his time in a Japanese POW camp.