Project researcher Tom Slater was born in Thunder Bay (Fort William), Ontario, the younger of two sons, along with older brother Ken, to parents Oliver and Frances Slater. He was raised and educated in Thunder Bay, attaining a Bachelor of Science (Biology) degree from Lakehead University. He then attained his Bachelor of Education degree from Nipissing University in North Bay, Ontario.
Tom has always had a keen interest in military history, partly due to his parents’ own war experiences. During the Second World War, his mother, Frances, would work for a time in 1944 at the Canadian Car and Foundry in Thunder Bay where Hawker Hurricane airplanes for the Royal Air Force were built. His father, Oliver, was a veteran of World War II. Oliver Slater first enlisted at age sixteen with the Canadian Army (Militia) on September 16, 1941, in Kenora, Ontario. He served with the 16th Medium Battery Reserve Army, with the rank of Gunner for just over a year and a half. He would leave the army to join the Navy, enlisting at the age of seventeen and ten months, on June 26, 1943 in Port Arthur, Ontario. The minimum age to enlist without parental consent was seventeen years, six months. Although Oliver was slightly older than the minimum age, he was initially asked to provide a parent’s consent, but that condition was later waived. As a member of the Royal Canadian Naval Volunteer Reserve, Able Seaman Oliver Slater served on convoy duty in the “Battle of the Atlantic”. Oliver served aboard several ships including the Fairmile Motor Launch Q090, the Frigate HMCS Lauzon and the aircraft carrier HMS Puncher, seeing action from the east coast of Canada and Newfoundland and across the Atlantic Ocean to Ireland and Great Britain. He was honourably discharged in September of 1947. Tom also had an uncle, Edward Dubeau, who would serve in World War II as a member of the Royal Canadian Naval Volunteer Reserve, also serving on convoy duty off the east coast of Newfoundland and in the North Atlantic.
After Tom attained his Bachelor of Education degree, he and his wife, Jodi, began their teaching careers in Northern Alberta in the fall of 1982. One year later, expecting their first child, Tom and Jodi moved to Lambton County, where he began teaching with the St. Clair Catholic District School Board. Tom moved to St. Patrick’s Catholic High School, Sarnia in the fall of 1985, where he taught science, biology and special education over three decades. He retired in June of 2013. Tom is the proud father of daughter Megan and son Bennett and has always surrounded himself with loving pets.