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Doris Gregory

The first-time author Doris Gregory, 93, discusses her recent memoir How I Won the War for the Allies: One Sassy Canadian Soldier’s Story (Ronsdale Press, 2014), serving during World War II in the Canadian Women’s Army Corps, her studies at UBC, and more, with Joseph Planta.


How I Won the War for the Allies: One Sassy Canadian Soldier’s Story by Doris Gregory (Ronsdale Press, 2014).

Click to buy this book from Amazon.ca: How I Won the War for the Allies [1]


Text of introduction by Joseph Planta:

I am Planta: On the Line, in Vancouver, at TheCommentary.ca.

Earlier this year, Doris Gregory, at the age of 93 became a first time author when Ronsdale Press published her memoir, How I Won the War for the Allies: One Sassy Canadian Soldier’s Story. It’s a charming book about her life seventy years ago when she fought gender discrimination at the University of British Columbia, and then when she joined the Canadian Women’s Army Corps, which took her to across the Atlantic during World War II. It’s a book about service and war, from the perspective of someone who was there to witness what the war was like at the ground level if you will. Though her work was largely in an office, she managed to make an adventure out of it, traveling through southern England, the midlands and Scottish lowlands, even into Ulster. It’s a great read, and worth discussing as we mark Remembrance Day this week. Doris Gregory joins me now, and I’ll get her to tell us about her part in the war effort, how many made up the CWAC’s, and the humour and optimism that leavened her war years. Doris Gregory was born Doris Filmer-Bennett here in Vancouver, interrupting her studies at UBC to enlist. After the war she returned to UBC for a couple of degrees in psychology, was awarded a fellowship to the University of Minnesota, taught briefly at the University of New Hampshire, and later worked for many years as a school psychologist in Ontario. She studied at the Clarke Institute of Psychiatry in Toronto to hone her clinical skills before opening an independent practice in Aurora. This is a great book. Do get it, it’s a great view on to this war and the war experience that’s worth reading. Please welcome to the Planta: On the Line program, Doris Gregory; Ms. Gregory, good morning.