As a best-selling novel, and Steven Spielberg’s blockbuster film, War Horse has vividly evoked the heroism and tragedy of First World War cavalry units. Now, Mirvish Productions in Toronto has gone a step further in the quest for authenticity. Its staging of War Horse at the Princess of Wales Theatre features a mini-exhibition lent by the Canadian War Museum.

The Second World War was a vast and complex drama, carrying within it countless individual stories. Courage, sacrifice, triumph: Gerald Carty’s story has it all.

In July of 1941, Second World War was fiercely a-raging. Jim Morell, native son of Newcastle, New Brunswick, was getting ready for the big departure. His farewells to his sweetheart, Vesta, were filled with hope: they tore a dollar bill in two and promised to join both halves when they would reunite…and then happily spent the next 60 years in each others company.

If war has a story to tell, so do the people who lived it…