Airthrey Castle - Scotland
Birthplace
Doug was born in Airthrey Castle, Sterling Scotland on the 29th of January 1959.
With the outbreak of the Second World War, in 1939 Airthrey Castle became an emergency maternity hospital and remained a maternity hospital until 1969. Stirling Castle is only a 5 kilometer drive away from Airthrey Castle.
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Master Douglas Smith
Glenoglehead Cottages, Killin, Scotland
Doug grew up for his first few years in the Glenoglehead Cottages from 1959-1963. The Glen Ogle mountain is in the background.
Doug learned to walk at a very early age and was walking before he was 10 months old. His mother told him that he was such a cute little baby with his dimples that she thought she took the wrong baby home. LOL
A recent picture of the Glenoglehead Cottages can be seen below. No super four lane highway in those days in 1959.
Glenoglehead Cottages
Killin, Scotland
Former railway cottages (possibly the former station building) by the A85 road at the head of Glen Ogle. The platforms of the long closed (1916) Killin station (miles from Killin) can be seen to the left of the cottage.
Doug lived in the left half of this company owned railway cottage. His brother Michael and sister Patricia were both born in this home. His father, Patrick Duncan Smith was a Railway Signalman for the Glenoglehead Railway. The railway is long gone for a new highway. Doug and his family visited this cottage in the late 1980's.
Glenoglehead was a railway station located at the head of Glen Ogle, Stirling district, Scotland. It was situated on a remote mountainside, some 3 miles south of the village of Killin. The railway line was right beside the cottages.
The SS Empress of Canada
June 1965 - Immigrated to Canada
Doug's family departed from Greenock, Scotland on the 26th of May 1965 and arrived in Montreal, Quebec, Canada in June.
The keel of the third new post-war Canadian Pacific 'Empress' was laid in January 1959 (the month and year of his birth) at Vickers-Armstrongs' yard at Walker-on-Tyne. Seventeen months later the new ship was launched by Mrs Diefenbaker, the wife of the Canadian Prime Minister, on 10th May 1960, and named EMPRESS OF CANADA. In February 1961 the vessel was moved into the dry dock at Swan Hunter & Wigham Richardson's yard at Wallsend, and a month later, on 7th March 1961, she left for her trials in the Firth of Clyde.
Doug - Grade 1
Sault Ste. Marie - Ontario - Canada
Someone does not want to smile for the camera. It might have been the teacher telling him that a truck is a truck and not called a lorry.
First Accordion
Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, Canada
Doug learned to play the accordion while he was in public school. A very popular time for accordion bands. He really enjoyed practicing...not.
Doug was on stage and in music competitions at an early age but not singing yet.
Teenage years
Sault Ste. Marie - Ontario
Doug was a very active teenager in the scouting movement. Doug was with the Venture program for five years. 13-17 years old. He learned numerous skills with the American Search & Rescue with the BPOE on the Michigan side in the USA. Doug had his drivers license and a HAM radio license (after learning morse code) at 16 years old.
Doug was a very active member with the Search & Rescue. Learning to hunt, camp, scuba dive, tracking, map reading, survival training and white water canoeing to name only a few skills. At 16 years old, Doug was a member of the search and rescue crews called out to look for any signs of debris or survivors of the SS Edmund Fitzgerald. It was an American Great Lakes freighter that sank in a Lake Superior storm on November 10, 1975, with the loss of the entire crew of 29. When launched on June 7, 1958, she was the largest ship on North America's Great Lakes, and she remains the largest to have sunk there.
Doug remembers the storm was so severe on the10th of November that Search and Rescue crews could not be deployed until November 11th, Remembrance Day. Large Blue Spruce trees were even snapped in half on his street from the storm.
Wedding Day 19th Aug 1977
Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, Canada
Doug married his high school sweetheart Sharon, just after turning 18 years old in January that same year. They were married on the 19th of August 1977. They celebrated their 40th Anniversary together in their current home town of Arnprior in 2017.
Elvis Presley had just passed away on the 16th of August, three days before their wedding. He remembers exactly where he was and pulled the car over to listen to the radio about the death of a legend.
Doug had topped his summer employment program with the Canadian 49th Field Artillery Regiment in 1976 with his 5 years of skills in the American Search & Rescue as a teenager. Coupled with his attached training with the regular forces in Petawawa and outstanding reviews, earned Doug a direct entry into the Canadian Forces in Petawawa where he served in the Special Service Forces of Canada before heading to service overseas with his wife Sharon.