Guilloche Yozakura
Elaborately worked writing
instruments and accessories,
inspired by the Japanese tradition
ofcelebratingcherryblossoms
in spring.Made in Germany.Formoreinformationpleasevisitlsfgrouppens.caor
[email protected]--.Graf-von-Faber-Castell.comT
o an Ontario farm boy, the words of a war
poem were exhilarating, fuelling fanciful
thoughts of adventure far from home.
After hearing military recruiting officers
quote fromThe Charge of the Light Brigade, John
Babcock signed up with the 146th Battalion of the
Canadian Expeditionary Force in February, 1916.
The fair-haired, blue-eyed teen from Frontenac
County stood all of 5 feet and 4.5 inches, and
weighed 118 pounds. His enlistment papers de-
scribed his “apparent age” as 18, but in truth he
was just 15 years old. He was dispatched to
England, but declared too young for immediatebattle in the First World War and placed with the
Boys Battalion. By the time he was old enough to
join the Western Front in France, the war had end-
ed. Because he never made it to the front lines,
Babcock didn’t see himself as a “real soldier” of the
Great War and rarely spoke of that experience.
When he became Canada’s last surviving First
World War veteran in May, 2007, the federal gov-
ernment restored his Canadian citizenship, which
he’d renounced in order to work in the United
States, where he also served in the army. He died at
the age of 109 in Spokane, Wash.
RENATA D’ALIESIOFEB.18,CANADA’SLASTKNOWN
FIRSTWORLDWARVETDIES
A2 OTHEGLOBEANDMAIL | TUESDAY,FEBRUARY18,MOMENTINTIME
Lawmakershavebeen
tooslowtomoveon
medicallyassisteddying
forpatientswith
mentalillness ABringingachameleon
qualitytoherroles,
LesleyManvilleis
oneofBritain’smost
formidableactors AForSusanHoffman,
thegiftofFebruaryis
howitcontraststhe
blahofwinterwith
theblingofspring AFirstWorldWarveteranJohnBabcockholdsupawarphotonexttohiswife,Dorothy,attheirhome
inSpokane,Wash.,in2007.Babcockenlistedwiththe146thBattalionoftheCanadianExpeditionaryForce
in1916,whenhewasjust15yearsold.LARRYMACDOUGAL/THECANADIANPRESS[COLUMNISTS]ANDRÉ
PICARDOPINIONJOHANNA
SCHNELLERBIGGERPICTUREFIRST
PERSON
Britain issued severe flood warn-
ings Monday, advising of life-
threatening danger after Storm
Dennis dumped weeks worth of
rain in some places. A woman
was found dead after being swept
away by the flood waters, the
storm’s third confirmed victim.
To the east, Dennis’s gale-force
winds also left nine people in-
jured in Germany as their vehi-
cles crashed into broken trees lit-
tering roads and train tracks.
Flooding and power outages
were reported elsewhere in
northern Europe.
By Monday evening, Britain’s
Environment Agency issued sev-
en severe flood warnings in the
central English counties of Here-
fordshire, Staffordshire and Wor-
cestershire.
Another 200 lower-level flood
warnings were also in place,
meaning that flooding was ex-
pected.
About 480 flood warnings and
alerts were issued across England
on Monday, the highest number
on record, the agency said.
The storm’s confirmed death
toll rose to three as West Mercia
Police said a body had been found
in the search for a 55-year-old
woman who had been missing
near Tenbury in Worcestershire
since Sunday.
A man pulled from the water in
the same incident was airlifted to
a hospital, where he remains in
stable condition, police said.
The weather system brought
winds of more than 145 kilo-
metres an hour and up to 150 mil-
limetres of rain to Britain over the
weekend. And the tumult is not
over. “We expect disruptive
weather into the middle of this
week bringing a significant flood
risk for the West Midlands, and
there are flood warnings in place
across much of England,” said
Toby Willison, executive director
of Operations at Britain’s Envi-ronment Agency.
Forecasters said river levels in
parts of northern England had yet
to reach their peak. In the north-
ern England city of York, author-
ities were piling up more than
4,000 sandbags as the River Ouse
continued to rise. It’s expected to
peak on Tuesday.
Other residents in Wales and
western England were cleaning
up Monday after the storm flood-
ed roads, railways, homes and
businesses and disrupted travel
across Britain.
Britain’s Environment Secreta-
ry said climate change was mak-
ing extreme weather events more
common. But Prime Minister Bo-
ris Johnson’s Conservative gov-
ernment denied it was unpre-
pared for such storms.
“We’ll never be able to protect
every single household, just be-
cause of the nature of climate
change and the fact that these
weather events are becoming
more extreme, but we’ve done ev-
erything that we can do with a sig-
nificant sum of money,” Environ-
ment Secretary George Eustice
said.
In Germany, at least nine peo-ple were injured in weather-relat-
ed car accidents as high winds
brought trees down onto roads
and train tracks.
A commuter train with 67 pas-
sengers also crashed into a fallen
tree in the western German city of
Dortmund, but nobody was in-
jured. And in the German city of
Hamburg, the city’s famous fish
market was flooded for the sec-
ond time this month.
Further north, strong winds
and heavy rains caused flooding,
road closings and electricity out-
ages across the Nordic and Baltic
regions and forced the cancella-
tion of several ferries between
Denmark and Norway.
In Denmark, the southwestern
city of Kolding was flooded as
gale-force winds and heavy rains
battered the area. In nearby
Horsens, police protectively evac-
uated residents near Bygholm
Lake out of fear that a levee
would collapse.
In southwestern Norway, more
than half a dozen roads and sev-
eral mountain passes were closed
amid heavy snow and high winds.ASSOCIATEDPRESSritainrappeswithseverefoodinasdeathtofro0tor ennisrises
DANICAKIRKA
JANOLSENAnemergencyworkerrescuesagirlinafloodedstreetinHereford,
England,onSunday,afterStormDennishitnorthernEurope.About
480floodwarningsandalertswereissuedacrossEnglandMonday.
PHILNOBLE/REUTERS