This Remembrance Day, the Sunshine Coast Museum and Archives is shining a spotlight on the military career of a local veteran who was among the first wave of women accepted into Canada’s navy and the army during the Second World War.
The late Dorothy Wortman was born in 1905, and joined the Women’s Royal Canadian Naval Service during World War II, attaining the rank of captain. She was also involved in the Canadian Women’s Army Corp and lectured across Canada as part of that assignment, on military recruitment and training.
Speaking with Coast Reporter, museum manager and curator Mathew Lovegrove said Wortman was a Sunshine Coast resident from 1941 until her death in 1999.
Along with information about her non-combat roles with both the navy and the army, the exhibit contains a 50th anniversary plaque awarded to Wortman for her service. The current feature display also includes other World War II artifacts from the museum’s permanent collection such as uniform buttons and badges, a first aid kit and gas masks.
Lovegrove said the museum has been doing “pocket” exhibits showcasing stories of Coast residents involved in military service, both overseas and locally, each November for the past decade. The focus has been “to reflect on the sacrifices of local residents and how World War II shaped the present day.”
“At the museum, we also host permanent exhibits on local Finnish settlers who were conscientious objectors in World War I, and an exhibit that explores the internment of Japanese Canadians on the Sunshine Coast that occurred in 1942,” Lovegrove said. “These share stories of hardship as well as what war can do to a culture and what it did to the Sunshine Coast.”
The 2021 “A time to remember” exhibit will be on display throughout the month of November.
The Museum is closed on Remembrance Day, Nov. 11, and all statutory holidays. It is open to the public at 716 Winn Road in Gibsons, Tuesdays through Saturdays, from 10:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
