CARLYLE - Courage and devotion to duty can come in many places and in many shapes.
There is, of course, the bravery of men under fire, but courage can also be found in the form of a 21-year-old ambulance driver fighting through a Prairie blizzard to save ill soldiers. Someone who showed that courage and devotion to duty, who should be remembered today, and who was recognized at the time: Private Ellen Millicent (Mickie) Kerridge.
Kerridge was from Morden, Man., but later lived in Carlyle. In March 1943, she was 21 years old and a member of the Canadian Women Army Corps, when she was called upon to drive seriously ill service members from Portage la Prairie to a hospital in Winnipeg.
This seems like a simple, if necessary, health mission, however the weather in southern Manitoba was anything but co-operative. Private Kerridge drove from Winnipeg to Portage in a blizzard to pick up the personnel. The drive took three hours. She then turned around, with her patients and her assistant, a medical orderly, and headed back to the Winnipeg hospital.
The report published in the March 26. 1943 edition of the Regina Leader-Post states that she headed back to Winnipeg shortly after sundown. The blizzard continued to rage and Kerridge had to stop and inspect the highway many times during the trip.
In order to see the road, it was necessary for her to drive with a window open. As the night wore on, with all the stopping and with the window open, Kerridge became wetter and colder. In order to ensure her patients were protected, she diverted all the heat from the engine to the patients' compartment, and drove with no heat in the cab.
After 80 kilometres of the trip, she ran out of gas. She immediately sent the orderly in search of the RCMP and gas for the vehicle. She informed her superiors of her situation, and was told to ”sit tight” and that help was on the way.
She was afraid her patients would be all the worse for waiting in the snow, and once she received the gasoline, she followed a snowplow into Winnipeg, delivering her patients to the hospital and checking in at the military garage at 2 a.m.
Kerridge showed up at parade the next day on time, but later was confined to hospital for two days for a severe cold and neuralgia in her back.
For her efforts, for her care for her patients and for her devotion to duty, Kerridge was awarded the British Empire Medal.
Kerridge married Lorne McLeod, who was an airframe technician. After the war, the couple moved back to McLeod's home town of Carlyle, where he worked with his brother, Alvin, at McLeod’s service station and later farmed. Both Kerridge and McLeod were active in the Royal Canadian Legion, and she was active in Carlyle in both sports and the arts.
McLeod and Kerridge had two children, Alan, who currently is the owner of Carlyle Auto Parts, and Joelle, who also served in the military as an ambulance and bus driver for almost 10 years, and currently resides with her husband in Penticton, B.C.
Kerridge passed away in 1971 and her husband died in 1976.
She was a very private person, and rarely if ever, commented on her service award. Her children only learned of her medal from her sister Joyce. Kerridge's example of courage and devotion to duty should be remembered.
At the time of her award, newspaper articles about it appeared across western Canada, in the Leader-Post, the Victoria Times Colonist and the Manitoba Calling Magazine. All three documents were used to prepare this article and the photo is from Manitoba Calling magazine's October 1944 edition.
There are so many instances of bravery, support of brothers and sisters in uniform and devotion of duty demonstrated by those who serve. Kerridge's story should be remembered as one of them.
