Clarence Mitchell grew up on a farm near Cairngorm, Ontario. He enlisted at HMCS Prevost, London, Ontario on June 29, 1942
He served on destroyers doing convoy duty throughout the war. You can read more about of his experiences at
I was eager to join up but was not old enough, so I had to wait. The Navy was the only armed force that would take young men and boys 17 years of age. A day or two after my seventeenth birthday (1942), I hitchhiked to London to join the Navy. They welcomed me with open arms but sent me home with a letter that had to be signed by a parent, merchant, police chief, and a minister from a church. It took some talking to get my mother to sign, but she did. Mr. Statham the merchant, Chief Tanton, and Rev. Honeyman from the Presbyterian Church all signed. With the letter, I showed up at HMCS Prevost in London, was given a real fast medical and a Navy uniform. I was now a full-fledged member of the Royal Canadian Navy V.R. In a little over a week, I had to learn seamanship, knots and splices, Morse Code, and to read messages with flags. In less than 2 weeks, I was on a troop train with hundreds of Army, Navy, and Air Force personnel heading for Halifax on the east coast of Canada, some to board troop ships for overseas. I was stationed at HMCS Cornwallis in Halifax, before Cornwallis moved to Deep Brook, N.S., to take more training.
