Jack Dyson was born March 23, 1926 in Lancashire, England, and he came to Canada with his family when he was 3 years old. Nick’s father had been a coal miner near Liverpool, and he vowed that his young son would never find himself in “the pits”, so he went to Canada and made a life for his family in Guelph. Jack quit school after Grade 10 and joined the Royal Canadian Navy in 1943, where he played a role in the pivotal Battle of the Atlantic, keeping the supply lines to England open. His naval career began in Hamilton, followed by a stint in Halifax, after he was assigned to the HMCS Boniface. The Boniface was a minesweeper, and Jack was one of the ship’s stokers, monitoring the ship’s engines. Like many sailors and merchant seamen Jack dealt with all the sea had to offer: the storms, the harsh conditions, and the constant threat of U-boats. Jack’s ship engaged and was able to sink two U-boats during his time on the north Atlantic. After the war Jack went home and at his father’s insistence he finished his schooling and went onto do a tool-and-die apprenticeship, before working for a number of companies in the toy industry and finding his place in postwar Canada. Jack Dyson was interviewed at the Sunnybrook Veterans’ Wing in October 2023.
