Glenn and Will Sawyer's books are for sale
at:
The books are available at:
- Cabri Museum, Cabri, Saskatchewan
- White Bear Hotel, White Bear, Saskatchewan
- Nanton Lancaster Museum, Nanton, Alberta
Or contact the authors directly at:
Kelowna, BC (250) 765-5227 or Calgary, AB (403) 249-8598
Inquiries are always welcome at Webb
Publishing.
The River Rats Came Home
by Glenn and Will Sawyer
Six boys left their family home in the tiny town of White Bear,
Saskatchewan, to join the Royal Canadian Air Force and participate
in World War II. Incredibly, all six returned to share their stories.
Glenn and Will Sawyer, now in their eighties, have recorded a broad
and fascinating variety of World War II stories, leaving the reader
with a feeling of involvement in both the Sawyer family experience
and the Canadian experience.
Eldest brother, Ken, was an RCAF pilot,
and the first to join up. The Sawyer family was devastated when
Ken left, as were all the girls in town. Facing crash landings
and near-misses, Ken’s Liberator took
him as far as Egypt during the war. Uncle Emil (their mother’s
youngest brother) lived with the family and was the next to leave.
Emil trained as an aero engine mechanic and flew in a Norseman crew,
spending three years making emergency trips across northern Canada.
Will, a bomb aimer in a Lancaster crew, was involved
in the sinking of the great German battleship, the Admiral Scheer.
Glenn, an aircraftsman on Avro Ansons and Beachcrafts,
describes the intensity and locations of training required on Canadian
soil prior to leaving for overseas service. Gordon, the family character,
was a Spitfire mechanic. Serving on the ground in
Europe provided Gordon the opportunity to meet some locals and take
his share of the spoils of war (including a Luger, Nazi war map and
eagle swastika statue). Youngest brother, Tom, desperately wanted
to join the RCAF with his siblings, but didn’t meet the age
requirements, so served a very brief stint in the army. Funny enough,
Tom was the only Sawyer boy to experience a war injury, having been
poked in the backside by the bayonet of a recruit behind him during
training exercises.
The Sawyer brothers write of more than just wartime activities;
they bring to life the shared experience of a family and a period
in Canadian history soon to be lost. The family history of six boys
and one sister growing up on the banks of the South Saskatchewan
River with a ferryman father and hard-working mother, is delightful,
as is the early history of White Bear*, Saskatchewan; the Sawyers
were the first family to reside in the town, arriving with the CNR
line in the late 1920s.
The River Rats Came Home is an entertaining and sympathetic
read, to be enjoyed by all generations.
The Cabri Ferry Crossing and Its Changing
Faces
by Glenn Sawyer
Author Glenn Sawyer grew up on the banks of the South Saskatchewan
River at the Cabri Ferry Crossing, along with four brothers and one
sister. Their father was the ferryman at Cabri for 15 years. Sawyer
regales some terrific memories of life on the river during the dirty
thirties, as well as providing insight into how the original manually-operated
ferries worked. The Cabri Ferry Crossing is one of a very few historical
documents written about the early provincial government ferry system
in Saskatchewan. It is filled with hand-sketched diagrams, aerial
photographs and some terrific family photos and memories from an
era of Canadian history long past.
