Jack MacQuarrie

Jack MacQuarrie, served his country in the Royal Canadian Navy and Naval Reserve from 1943 to 1972.  He initially enlisted with the Army in 1943, but as the Army would only send men overseas at 19, and as he was eager to serve his country overseas, he decided to join the Navy instead. In the summer of 1944, Jack enlisted in Montreal and then attended Naval training in Windsor. 

He was shipped to Halifax where he worked in the dockyard on ship maintenance and was then sent to Navy Signals School where he received signals, radio, and radar training.  He was given leave prior to being sent to the Pacific, but, the war in Japan was over before his leave was.

Jack continued to serve aboard an aircraft carrier during the Korean War. 

In 1960, Jack qualified as a Navy Diver and he became part of the Operational Diving Unit. He participated as a “subject” in experimental chamber dives conducted by Commander Kidd at the Defense and Civil Institute of Environmental Medicine – towards the development of a decompression computer.  He remembers “deep chamber dives and rapid ascents” to test the computer model.  This unit was also responsible for salvaging aircraft and bomb disposal, and in 1966, one of his Naval Reserve assignments was clearing unexploded munitions dumped into the Halifax harbour after WWII.  While suiting up on the deck for a naval working dive, carrying about a hundred pounds of gear – double tanks and a weight belt, he slipped and fell and was seriously injured.  He spent six months recovering at Sunnybrook hospital.  Diving once again when able, he unfortunately ingested and inhaled some oily water at a dive surface and the illness that ensued ended his ability to dive. 

Jack reached the rank of Lt. Commander in the Naval Reserve and his last assignment was as Commanding Officer of the Sea Cadet Corps before his release from service in 1972. 

Jack was an active member of Uxbridge Legion Branch 170. He was a member of the “Knights of the Round Table”, a name given to a group of veterans and friends who gathered every Thursday afternoon for many years. He was active in the Uxbridge Historical Society and as an accomplished musician, was very active in the Toronto Music Scene.

We Will Remember Them

The Uxbridge Cosmos link: http://www.nomill.com/Cosmos_20210121_Around%20the%20Township.html