Farewell Capt. The Rev. J. A. Davidson
DAVIDSON, Rev. DR. J. A. (Jock) Born in Winnipeg, Man. June 25, 1919, passed away in Victoria on Friday, March 18, 2005. Jock is survived by a large and loving family: Marion (Brunsdon), his wife of 59 years, his sister Adele Parkhill (Jim) and his four children Margaret, Bill (Maion), Leslie (Lincoln Ford) and Jane (Boyd Norman). Jock was especially proud of and delighted by his nine grandchildren: Leah, Aaron, Samuel, Sarah, Naomi, Annie, Timothy, Natalie and Christopher. Jock’s extended family includes his nieces and nephews, brothers-in-law and sister-in-law. Jock grew up in North Battleford, Sask., the son of William and Helen. In 1942, Jock joined the Canadian forces in Europe as a member of the Royal Canadian Corps of Signals and as a signals officer in the Queen’s Own Rifles of Canada. He served with distinction and received the decoration, Mention in Despatches. Following the war, Jock attended St. Andrew’s College at the University of Saskatchewan and was ordained into the ministry of….READ MORE
Capt. The Rev. J.A. Davidson reads the heavy wooden nameplate that sits next to my desk at work. My Grandfather was known as “big J.A.” and I as “little J.A.”, since we share the same initials. He gave me his old nameplate many years ago in recognition of this connection.
Captain, because of his time in the army. He was a signals officer in WWII, and if my memory serves correctly, he landed in Normandy on D-Day+6 or so, and then spent a harrowing time on the front lines all the way through the flooded plains of Holland. After the war he became an army chaplain and conjured up my father and his three sisters. Hence the Reverend portion of the nameplate. It’s too bad the plate was made before he received his honorary PhD.
He died on friday, after several years of unfortunate deterioration from Alzheimer’s Disease. 🙁
This friday I’ll be flying out to Victoria for the memorial service on Saturday, so don’t expect any fresh postings until next week.
Currently reading: Otherland: River of Blue Fire (Vol II) by Tad Williams.
Dear Aaron ,
I was sorry to read about your grandfather’s death in the Kingston Whig Standard last weekend.
Your aunt Margaret was a childhood friend of mine. We met when your grandfather was the army chaplin at RMC. Unlike many parents of my friends , whom I barely knew, I have many fond memories of him. He showed an interest in us, his kids’ friends, He loved to tease and I thought he was very funny!
I googled Jock’s name hoping to find a link to Margaret and I hope I have. I am looking for her current address . Would you please forward it to me.
With sympathy for your loss,
Joan Bowie
I knew him when he was the minister at Dominion Chalmers church in Ottawa. He wrote an article in the Ottawa paper saying that for him, music was in a sense the word of God – and I read it, and went along to the church each Sunday for the next year or so to hear him preach. A good man, God bless him.
Rev. Davidson retired from his weekly newspaper column, Perspectives and Prejudices, at the age of 80 . . . Actually, the Prejudices was part of his original column title, a word he dropped many years ago in favour of the much more inclusive and accurate Perspectives.
I handled his column for about 20 years as a copy editor responsible for the Religion Pages. It was a task I looked forwrd to each week, because Rev. Davidson did indeed offer a valuable (to me) Perspective, not only on religious faith, but life in general.
Here it is, January 2007, and while cleaning out some files, I came across an old column head, and that sparked the memories.
Rev. Davidson will be remembered by all his readers as a compassionate Christian and a wise man who was able to relate his faith to life at large.