Dr. Tramer was born in Csechoslovakia and attended his high school there. In 1933 he went to a general university in Prague and graduated in 1939. After Germany occupied Poland, Dr. Tramer worked under Judenrat in a Jewish hospital in Sosnovice before being sent to a labor camp in Germany to practice medicine for a three-month interval. After one year back in Sosnovice he was sent to the camp again and from there he started his way from one labor camp to other. In 1943 the Germans liquidated all the labor camps and transferred Dr. Tramer and his wife Nelly Tramer to different concentration camps. Dr. Tramer went through Munslau, Nordhausen, Ellerich, and Oranienburg before finally being liberated by the Russians. After the war Dr. Tramer went back to Poland to reunite with his wife. In 1968 the family migrated to Canada.
Clifford Armitage Was born on December 2, 1903, in Armstrong, British Columbia to Alfred Emerson Armitage and Jean Beattie. Moving to London, Ontario with his family at an early age, he received his early education at Rectory Street School. In 1911 his father moved west, working as an agent-telegrapher with the Canadian Northern Railway, and following that, Armitage went to Saskatchewan and lived in Blaine Lake from 1912 to 1920, until he finished his high school. Graduating from the University of Saskatchewan in 1925 with a B.A. degree, Armitage worked at different jobs before enrolling at the University of Toronto’s Medical School in 1927. After graduating in 1931, he interned at the Toronto General Hospital as a resident physician and then worked briefly as a locum tenens for Dr. McDonald in Kilbride, Ontario and as a camp doctor at the summer camp run by St. Andrew's College. Following that Dr. Armitage interned at the psychiatric hospital in Toronto, H.P. and later went to England, working as a house physician at the Radcliffe infirmary in Oxford for six months. In 1934, Dr. Armitage come back to Canada and settled in practice in Schumacher, a Timmins suburb, where he got involved in the set up of the prepaid medical plans for the Hollinger mine.
During the Word War Two, Dr. Armitage served in the reserve army as a medical officer for a time and on that basis, he moved to Toronto with his family. After getting discharged from the army, he went back to Timmins and became associated with Dr. Jack Stiles, a classmate of his, and they practiced together for six years. In 1951, Dr. Armitage left Timmins and come to Brampton, where he went into an association with Dr. Bartlet before getting on his own as a single, solo family practitioner doing anesthesia as a sideline.
Dr. Armitage married Ethel Elizabeth Pears, a girl that he knew as a child out west in 1937. Their first child, Donald, born in 1939, is a practising specialist in Brampton; their second child, Kathleen, born in 1941, is a specialist in Physical Medicine in Brampton. Dr. Armitage passed away in 1991.
Mark Brodsky was born August 25th, 1937, in Kharkov, Ukraine, to his father Boris Brodsky and mother Theresa Brosky. Brodsky spent his youth in Kharkov, and at the age of seventeen applied and was accepted to attend a medical institution in Lvov, Ukraine, under the jurisdiction and government control of the former Soviet Union. From 1954-60 Brodsky studied pediatric medicine and went on to do placements and practical training in a small village in the Carpathian Mountains, 100km north of Lvov. Brodsky was one of 3 staff physicians in the village, and managed all aspects of outpatient services, emergency services, and hospital services. In 1962 Brodsky completed his placement and returned to Lvov to live with his family. The following year Brodsky was assigned a position at the Children’s Hospital in Lvov and practiced pediatric medicine until early 1977. That same year Brodsky emigrated to Canada and would go on to intern and study at McMaster University Medical Center.
McLay Miller was born May 3rd, 1908, in Aylmer, Ontario, to father Blake Miller and mother Grace McLay. Miller spent his early and teenage years predominantly in Aylmer, but also lived in Brampton for a short time where he attended Brampton Collegiate for 2 years, before completing his final years of schooling back in Aylmer. Miller was heavily influenced to become a doctor by his family, as both his uncle (Dr. Homer Miller) and grandfather were doctors who also had lived and worked in Aylmer. After graduating high school in Aylmer, Miller applied and was accepted into the combined BA/MD program at Western University located in London, Ontario, in 1926. In 1933 Miller graduated with his combined BA/MD degree, and interned at a hospital in Erie, Pennsylvania for a year, before moving back to Aylmer. In Aylmer, Miller joined his uncle Homer at his practice, where they worked together for 15 years, before Homer Miller retired in 1948. Miller would practice medicine in Aylmer until his own retirement in 1985 at the age of 77. Miller’s post retirement days were spent with his wife Iola and enjoying hobbies such as bookbinding and photography.
McLay Miller passed away in 1996.
Connie Lynn Rankin Roland was born in 1935, to father Ray William Rankin, and mother Mildred Dorothy Vincent. Connie spent her childhood and adolescent years in Tillsonburg, where she helped her father with office work in his medical practice. She later became an actor, and in 1979 married medical historian Dr. Charles Gordon Roland, with whom she had seven children.
Gerry Glow was born July 6, 1913, in Winnipeg, Manitoba, to father Israel Glow, and mother Ida Gurvitch. Glow grew up alongside his brother Morris and was educated at St. Johns Technical Highschool. Following High School, Glow attended the University of Manitoba for one year. In 1937, Glow joined the Communist Party of Canada, and subsequently decided to fight in the Spanish Civil War, as he felt he had a duty to help the Spaniard’s fight for democracy. In 1937, Glow arrived in Spain, where he trained with the 2nd Battalion of Instruction, Canadian Company, before attending First Aid School in December of 1937. Glow then served with the 12th Brigade, 2nd Battalion, Company 2 from March to April of 1938. In July of 1938, Glow was transferred to the Mackenzie Papineau Battalion. Glow served in The Retreats from Belchite to Gandesa and the Ebro Crossing to Corbera.
Glow returned to Canada after the Spanish Civil War concluded and was involved in various strikes and demonstrations in Canada. He later worked in his brother Morris’s pharmacy and went on to marry Sally Bolt. Glow passed away February 23, 1997, in Winnipeg, Manitoba.
Ross Russell was born in Russell Greenberg on January 30, 1911, in Toronto, Ontario. He was born to James Greenberg and Rose Wermes, who were non-practicing Jews. Both of Russell’s parents were born in the United States but came to Canada to raise their family.
Russell lived and attended school in Toronto, but at the age of 18 left school and started work at FW Woolworth Company in North York, transferring after a year and a half to the Montreal location as an assistant manager. In the early 1930s, the Depression occurred, and Adolph Hitler came to power, prompting Russell to start educating himself on world politics and conflicts. When the Spanish Civil War began in 1936, Russell followed the story closely. It was at this time that he married, and his wife became one of the leaders of a local committee dedicated to helping the Spanish. In 1937, Russell left his job and signed onto the International Brigades, ready to travel overseas and help in the Spanish conflict. He and his fellows secretively journeyed to Spain by way of France, enacting a “spy thriller-esque” sequence of covert meetings, midnight bus convoys, and a march over the Pyrenees Mountains.
Once at the Albacete headquarters of the International Brigades, the men were divided into language groups and Canada was paired up with America and England to form the 15th Brigade. Russell was trained to be a machine gunner and moved many times with his company but didn’t see any action until the fight for Tervel. During this battle, he was hit in the back by shrapnel and had to be taken first to hospital and then a convalescent home in Denia. After recovering from this injury, misfortune struck again when the train Russell was travelling in was bombed and he was once more hit by a bomb fragment. In the early summer of 1938, Russell was in a hospital in Valencia when the city was bombed, delaying his departure from Spain.
Russell returned home to Montreal in February of 1938 and, after a period of recovery, was scouted to manage a new location of the Federal Store, on the condition that he change his original surname of Greenberg, which he did. However, after only a year and a half, he got a more attractive offer from a store in Toronto and moved back with his wife, enlisting in the army reserves once there. In the 1970s, Russell joined the Mackenzie-Papineau Battalion Veterans, an association committed to gaining official veteran status for those Canadians who fought in the Spanish Civil War. He eventually become president of the association and remained an active member until his death in 1990.