Franklin Wilbert Cleave
The Toronto Star August 4, 1990:
“On February 23, 1943, the Canadian corvette H.M.C.S. Weyburn was torpedoed and sank in the Straits of Gibraltar.
Of the Weyburn’s crew, the captain and 12 crew members were killed and are buried at sea. The Weyburn met her end as she set course for the United Kingdom after six weeks of fighting in the Mediterranean during World War II. Many of the corvette’s 63 survivors were severely injured and hospitalized for some time. Among the Ontario survivors… Able Seaman Frank Cleave of Georgetown”.
According to the Toronto Telegram April 1943, “during the sinking of the ship, Frank had suffered a fractured jaw, a badly bruised face and had both eyes blackened. Standing on the mess deck at the time the ship was struck, he remembers being badly bounced up and down and hitting the ceiling but does not remember everything which followed. He recalls being thrown into the water with other sailors and swimming around in lifebelts for several hours before being rescued by an Allied ship”.
Franklin Wilbert was born May 24, 1919 at Lot 5 Conc 8 Esquesing, to Robert Clark Cleave and Mary Isobel Thompson. His father was killed in a motor vehicle accident in 1924, when Frank was just five years old.
The 1931 Census of Canada shows Isobel, a widow living on McNabb St. in Georgetown (19 McNabb) with her two sons…Franklin Wilbert age 12 and Walker Forest (WW2) age 8, with two female lodgers…one a sorter in the papermill and one a high school teacher. The family attending the United Church.
Franklin married Marion Isabel Williamson in 1953 and the couple had two children. The 1972 Canadian Voters List shows Frank, an aircraft worker and Marion a teacher continuing to live at 19 McNabb with the couple still there in 1974.
Over the years the surviving members of the Weyburn have held at least four reunions in 1985, 1987, 1988 and 1990.
Frank died on April 22, 2002 at the age of 82 and was buried at Greenwood Cemetery.
Truly a Canadian Hero. His story lives on.
*Information provided by Mike Harley an taken from Ancestry.ca and Findagrave.com
