Olivia Grandy
Saskatoon StarPhoenix
When 18-year-old Ruth Bond-Martinson arrived in Windsor, Ont., to embark on her training after joining the navy in 1944, she walked all alone from the train station to the base.
Soon, a navy officer realized someone was supposed to pick her up.
“They forgot I was coming,” recalled Bond-Martinson. “Here I am. Nobody wants me,” she thought.
Eighty-one years later, Bond-Martinson, who has spent her life forging space for women and girls in the military — a historically often-forgotten group — has reached a milestone many do not: her 100th birthday.
Ahead of the party this coming Friday, Bond-Martinson, who grew up in the small town of Belmont, Ont., in a navy-oriented family, said she still feels immense pride for the uniform she wore during the Second World War. She served as a cook at a crucial naval training base in Halifax, known as HMCS Stadacona.
“You never lose that pride. Never,” she said.
Creating camaraderie for women
While in Halifax after news broke that the Germans had surrendered in Europe, Bond-Martinson witnessed the destruction caused by the VE-Day Riots firsthand.
“Well, can you imagine these sailors all dying to have a drink? Nothing opened,” she said about the lead-up to the looting in a city that was stretched thin by May of 1945.
After the war, Bond-Martinson moved to Saskatchewan to be with her husband, Francis (Frank) Bond, who was also in the military and originally from Leask. The two got married back in Halifax because she couldn’t get more than a weekend off, she said.
After settling in Saskatoon, Frank enrolled in university, and Bond-Martinson became a mother. Soon, she attempted to join the Royal Canadian Legion, where she hoped to volunteer her time.
However, she was soon informed that her application would not be accepted because she was a woman.
“I have no idea why women were not part of the (legion),” she said.
Thus, Bond-Martinson played a crucial role in founding the all-women Maple Leaf Unit of the Army, Navy and Air Force Veterans Association (ANAVETS) in Saskatoon.
“The women said, ‘We come back after the war, and you’re going to tell us the men are having such a good time with the legion, and they won’t let us join. Well, you know what? We’ll make our own legion,’” she recalled.
Ironically, during the early days of fundraising for the Maple Leaf Unit, the group catered food to legion functions.
“Only we girls know how good we were,” she said.
According to the Maple Leaf Unit’s Facebook page, it is the only all-women unit of the ANAVETS in Canada still in existence.
While balancing parenting six children, Bond-Martinson helped create a Wrenette program for girls based on Sea Cadets, which girls could not join until 1975. After that, she became a Royal Canadian Sea Cadet officer up to 1985.
“Hopefully, I made them feel … proud,” she said about her impact on young girls at the time. “Don’t ever come in and hang your head. Come in, head up, be proud. And, even at a hundred years of age, I’m very proud of my ability to still stand up and carry myself like I am a veteran.”
As another expression of that pride, she wore her uniform while working as a commissionaire at the provincial courthouse.
Finally, Bond-Martinson joined the legion in 2002 and became active in fundraising efforts for the Poppy Fund, which supports Canadian veterans. Around this time, after being a widow for 11 years, she met her second husband, Harold Martinson, who passed away in 2021.
Reflecting on 99 years of life
With 10 grandchildren, eight great-grandchildren and two great-great-grandchildren, Bond-Martinson says turning 100 hasn’t quite sunk in.
“It doesn’t seem real because a hundred years covers a lot of time, and I thought I hadn’t covered that much.”
Nonetheless, Bond-Martinson acknowledges that her life has been “a busy one.”
Along with her avid volunteering career, Bond-Martinson curled on the 1976 Saskatchewan senior women’s team that competed at nationals in Prince Edward Island. On it, she played second. Today, she considers her team sweater, adorned with pins, to be a prized possession.
“So this is what I wanted to wear for the interview,” she said while holding up the sweater.
These days, Bond-Martinson keeps her hands and brain active by knitting, walking and staying connected to loved ones.
“I’m not a person who lays back, just in the chair, waiting for company.”
With her iPhone on a handy silver stand, she has even adopted FaceTime, which she uses daily to speak with her brother.
“I love every one of them,” Bond-Martinson said about her large family.
Even after 99 years of life, she says she still feels she has new things to accomplish.
“Don’t think about me (as being) ready for the grave. I’m not ready yet, because there’s still a life I haven’t lived,” she said.
