John (Jack) Benson Gunter was born in 1918. Jack enlisted with the Fort Garry Horse Armoured Tank Corps. He was assigned as a mess cook and with supporting the soldiers on the frontlines during the D-Day Invasion. Jack passed away in 1960, he is buried at Little Britain Church Cemetery.
Early Life
John (Jack) Benson Gunter was born On April 16th, 1918 and had nine siblings. Four of his siblings were members of the Dufferin Gang, Blair, Beatrice, Elma, and Gerry who also served in the Second World War. His father passed away when he was twelve years old which led him and his older siblings to provide for their mother and younger siblings.
Jack worked as a cook in camps along Lake Winnipeg as a young man as well as worked as a cook at the Macdonald Airport while it was being built. Here he met his future wife, Eva “Irene” Bell.
Military Career
Jack enlisted with the Fort Garry Horse Armoured Tank Corps on February 11th, 1941. He trained at the Canadian Forces Military Base Borden in Ontario before shipping out to England for additional training at the end of 1941. He embarked from the UK on June 29th, 1944, for France, and left France a few days later on July 1st, 1944. From there he went to Belgium and Holland with the C Squadron of the Fort Garry Horse.
With his work experience as a cook, Jack was assigned as a mess cook, supporting the soldiers on the frontlines during the D-Day Invasion. His brothers, Blair and Gerald, as well as fellow Dufferin Gang members, Bill and Harold Little were some of these soldiers who arrived in France on D-Day. On August 8th, Jack’s unit was bombed by “friendly fire”. The United States mistakenly dropped their bombs short of their target. He took cover on his “slit trench” but was still heavily hit by shrapnel. He was sent to England for surgery, returned to his unit, and then remained in England for almost a year after the war ended for further surgery. He was discharged on March 12th, 1944.
Post Military Career
After returning home, Jack married Eva Bell in 1946. The couple lived in Selkirk and Jack found work at the Selkirk Mental Health Centre as Head Cook until he passed away on December 16th, 1960, at the age of 42. He is buried at Little Britain Church Cemetery.
Interestingly, Jack went through the war as Jack Craig Gunter, the name his mother gave him. When he first received his social insurance number after the war, he found out his father had registered him as John Benson Gunter after his side of the family and hadn’t told anyone.
Jack B. Gunter Collection
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Jack B. Gunter, 1939-1945, Gunter Family
Sources
Gunter Family
Stories of Selkirk’s Pioneers and Their Heritage, Kenneth G. Howard
David Elliot Atwell
Winnipeg Free Press, 2008
