The Military Museums

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Marg was born and raised in London, Ontario and has lived there all of her life. Like most of the young girls at that time, she started work at London Life Insurance Company, intending to stay “just a year for experience”. Marg retired in 2006 after 42+ years; half of that time spent as an Executive Assistant – a role she thoroughly enjoyed.

Marg’s father, Albert Dorey, was a wireless operator/air gunner with the 431 Squadron of Bomber Command. He was KIA near the end of the Second World War. Marg’s Mother never talked about him and it wasn’t until her death in 1994 when Marg found a number of items related to her father, that her interest in the Air Force began to grow. Early in her marriage, and with her husband's encouragement, Marg visited his grave at the Becklingen War Cemetery in Germany while on a trip to Belgium in 1969.

By chance, Marg happened to see a tiny advertisement for a battlefield tour in November 2005 and jumped at the chance to go again. As it turned out, Ian Watson was also on that tour and in conversation, he mentioned the Bomber Command Memorial in Nanton, Alberta. He also mentioned the Mural project at The Military Museums in Calgary.

During her first trip to Calgary, Marg visited The Military Museums and became intrigued by the Mural. Marg has since sponsored two panels, one of which is in memory of her Father and the rest of the Lancaster crew that perished.

Proof reading had always been a great part of Marg’s work as an executive assistant and so she volunteered to help. The rest, as they say, is history. Marg became a full time volunteer with the Mural Project in 2008.

When Marg retired in 2006, she also started a project to build a database of all 431 Squadron members that had fallen and photograph their grave markers to submit to Veterans Affairs for their Virtual War Memorial. When she realized that there was a fallen soldier from London, Ontario also buried in Becklingen War Cemetery in Germany whose grave marker had not been photographed, the project changed course to cover all those buried in Belgium, northern France, southern Netherlands and a couple of cemeteries in Germany that were on the way to Becklingen.

Marg and her late husband traveled many times over the years to Belgium and she has become very comfortable there. Since then, she has taken thousands of photographs of grave markers which have been submitted to the Virtual War Memorial.

In addition to traveling and photography, Marg is also an accomplished and enthusiastic ballroom dancer.

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