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A Royal Canadian Navy Historical Project
In memory of those who have Crossed the Bar
Mortimer Mitchell suffered a terrible tragedy in life. He lived in Frankfort Ontario on the Trent river. In a boating accident he lost his wife and two daughters. He became deeply depressed. To break out of his severe depression he thought he would join the RCN like his favourite nephew, Robert Mitchell. His father tried to talk him out of it, mainly because of his age, but then agreed it might be good for him. He went to the Naval recruiting office and they thought he might be to old. They asked him if he had a trade which he replied that he was engineer and had a stationery engineers license. They quickly signed him up and after Cornwallis was promoted to petty officer. He served on a few ships. One night while in port in England waiting for a return convoy, an officer came over and asked him about his tradesman badge; he then asked his name and what ship he was on. He later came back with a letter stating that he had been transferred to HMS Nelson and was on loan to the Royal Navy.
Ships served in: HMCS CATARAQUI - Enlisted 6 Aug 1943. On active service 16 Aug 1943 HMCS NELSON - Served in Nelson 21 Apr 1944 - 06 Nov 1944 as an A/ERA 4c, RCNVR HMCS ONTARIO - Served in Ontario 26 Apr 1945 - 10 May 1945 as an A/ERA 4c, RCNVR HMCS YORK - Drafted to York 14 Sep 1945. Demobilized 12 Nov 1945
(MM01) Mortimer Mitchell's Certificate of Service, page 2 (MM02) View from the Fo's'c'le of HMS RODNEY- the crew is fallen in on both port and starboard sides (MM03) HMS RODNEY firing her secondary armament (MM04) Mortimer Mitchell (left) and his nephew Robert C. Mitchell
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For Posterity's Sake 
