coat
Report a Mistake- Object Number 20060093-001
- Event 1939-1945 Second World War
- Affiliation --
- Artist / Maker / Manufacturer --
- Date Made 1944
- Place of Use Continent - Europe, Country - Netherlands, Municipality - Alphen aan den Rijn
- Category Personal artifacts
- Sub-category Clothing, outerwear
- Department Dress and Insignia
- Museum CWM
- Earliest 1944/01/01
- Latest 1944/12/31
- Inscription (buttons/bouton): CANADA HONI SOIT QUI MALY PENSE;
- Materials Mammal wool, Brass
- Branch Royal Canadian Artillery
- Service Component Canadian Army
- Unit 19th Field Regiment
- Person / Institution Associated Military Personnel, Elliott, Mr. Robert Kean Wood
- Measurements Height 78.2 cm, Width 41.0 cm
- Caption Little Sussie's Coat
- Additional Information War can bring people together in surprising ways. In the winter of 1944-45, Bob Elliott was a 19-year old soldier from Olds, Alberta, helping to defend the Allied line near Alphen, Holland. Bob's unit struck up a friendship with ten-year-old Sussie Cretier, whose constant singing and laughter were a welcome respite for the homesick, war-weary Canadian soldiers. On Christmas Day, they expressed their affection with a gift that included a smart military-style coat. Made by a local seamstress from a grey army blanket, it also used buttons taken from the soldiers' uniforms. Sussie, whose own coat was falling apart, was delighted. But the story does not end there. In 1981, Bob, recently divorced, went to Holland for his first visit since the war. He was met at the airport by Sussie, also recently divorced. Later that year, they married, and today they divide their time between Edmonton and the Netherlands. Sussie donated her special coat to the Canadian War Museum in 2006.
- Caption Sussie Cretier's Coat
- Additional Information In 1944, during the allied liberation of the Netherlands, Canadian gunner Robert Elliott and his comrades helped to clothe a young Dutch girl. They provided an army blanket and uniform buttons to a local seamstress to make this winter coat as a Christmas gift for 10-year-old Everdina (Sussie) Cretier. Elliott and the Cretiers kept in touch following the war. Many years later, in 1981, Robert and Sussie fell in love and married. This coat symbolizes the national and personal bonds arising from Canada's liberation of the Netherlands in the Second World War.