From the age of sixteen my uncle Ted kept a pocketbook size diary.

I've transcribed it verbatim although at times his entries, quickly written in soft lead pencil, defied my best decryption efforts. In cases like these I've left the word as this: -----. In places where I've added my own notes I've put them in square brackets.

Most of the photos are his, taken with a camera that produced a square negatives between 16 and 35mm in size.

I've corrected much of his spelling with the notable exception of his spelling 'went' as 'whent', which to me seems part of his character or maybe it just shows his attitude towards school.

His father, my grandfather, I refer to as Doctor Brydon. The family lived at 249 Main Street North, Brampton, Ontario. The population of Brampton in the early forties was around 6100 [T1] .

Thanks to my aunt Ethel Dale Sivell for many photos and stories, to Don and Dorothy Beatty for help putting names to faces in pictures plus more stories and also Brydon Brown for copies of Ted's letters written from overseas to his sister, Brydon's mom, my aunt Kate Brown.

[T1] Source: the gold covered Brampton 100th anniversary book