Navy vet still receiving tokens of appreciation

Neil Sunderland has fond memories of his time in the Royal Canadian Navy and even receives gifts from Korea every Christmas.

The 90-year-old life-long Kingsville resident joined the Navy in January of 1953 as the Korean War was being waged and was scheduled to leave Halifax on the HMCS Huron in late July, when it was announced that the war was over.

“We were told we were going anyway — for cleanup,” said Sunderland last week.

Neil was a Leading Seaman aboard the Huron where he served as Quartermaster on the upper deck of the famous Canadian warship.

After a while, he returned home and then ended up working on an icebreaker in the Arctic and also spent some time on a minesweeper, where he was the Chief Bosun’s Mate.

His time in the military and especially in the peacekeeping role in Korea, created a lifetime of memories and his uniform and other artifacts are currently on display at the Kingsville Military Museum.

When Neil left the Navy, he met up with his wife Barbara — a Kingsville girl — and they married in 1958 and soon started a family.

Four children later — three boys and a girl — the Sunderlands settled into civilian life.

In 1963, he opened Neil’s Shell on Division Road and operated the service station until his retirement in 1986.

Never one to sit still, Neil got the bug to get back into the workforce, so he took a job at Olinda Foods and spent 26 years at the factory before finally retiring for good. He was also a long-time member of the Kingsville Fire Department.

One year not too long ago, on a trip to Ottawa, Neil joined Korean Veterans Association Unit 7, the largest such unit in Canada at the time.

Since then, he’s received a gift from Korea each year.

“It’s usually a hat or t-shirt and some smaller items,” he said. “Last year they sent masks and I still have some of them.”

The gifts from Korea are indicative of what many Canadian war veterans have received from faraway places that are appreciative of their help during WWI, WWII and the Korean Conflict.

Some area veterans have been showered with gifts from Korean, Dutch or Belgian families over the years as an expression of gratitude for helping to liberate them.