THE VETERAN ON OUR $10 BILL
If you have a Canadian $10 bill, look at the back right side of the bill. You will see an old veteran standing at attention near the Ottawa
war memorial.
His name is Robert Metcalfe and he died in August at the age of 90.
That he managed to live to that age is remarkable, given what happened to him in the Second World War. Born in England, he was one of the 400,000 members of the British Expeditionary Force sent to the mainland where they found themselves facing the new German warfare technique -- the Blitzkrieg.
He was treating a wounded comrade when he was hit in the legs by shrapnel. En route to the hospital, his ambulance came under fire from a German tank, which then for unknown reasons ceased fire.
Evacuated from Dunkirk on HMS Grenada, two of the sister ships with them were sunk.
When recovered from his wounds, he was sent to allied campaigns in North Africa and Italy. En route his ship was chased by the famous German battleship 'Bismark.'
In North Africa he served under General Montgomery against the Desert Fox, Rommel. Sent into the Italian campaign, he met his future wife, a lieutenant and physiotherapist in a Canadian hospital. They were married in the morning by the mayor of the Italian town, and again in the afternoon by a British padre.
After the war they settled in Chatham where he went into politics and became warden (chairman) of the county. At the age of 80 he wrote a book about his experiences and on his retirement he and his wife moved to Ottawa.
One day out of the blue he received a call from a government official asking him to go downtown for a photo opportunity. He wasn't told what the photo was for or why they chose him. "He had no idea he would be on the 10-dollar bill," his daughter would later say.
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