Jean MacLean (nee Morley) was born September 11, 1924 in Norwich, Ontario, and she grew up in Claremont, just to the east of Toronto. Her father Fred was a jeweler and general labourer who had served overseas in the Great War, and her mother Verna was a nurse. Jean grew up against the backdrop of the Great Depression in a family with five brothers and one sister; she Finished school after Grade 10, having to leave early to help support the family after her father suffered a heart attack. Prior to the war she and her sister went to Toronto and took work as clerks at the Robert Simpson store. One day of her lunch break her sister picked up an application for the military, bringing home an extra one for Jean. Their older brother was already in the RCAF and was overseas, and he had urged his parents not to let the girls join. They did though, choosing the navy and becoming WRENs. Basic training came next and the sisters reported to HMCS Conestoga in Galt, Ontario. For Jean HMCS Cornwallis came next, and she was off to Halifax. She had indicated an interest in signals, but they needed cooks, so that’s where she was assigned. While at Cornwallis she had a chance encounter with a sailor named Harvey MacLean, who came from Meadow Bank, P.E.I. Harvey was doing convoy duty in the north Atlantic, a critical and dangerous part of Canada’s war effort. The two kept in touch, and they married on April 17, 1945 at the Dockyard Chapel in Halifax. The war ended the next month, and after discharge they moved to P.E.I., where Jean began her life as a farm wife and homemaker. She was actively in her community, working through her church and voluntary organizations on an array of charitable activities. Jean MacLean was interviewed by Scott Masters at her home in Meadow Bank in July 2024.
