Knut Moeskau

Canadian Technical Training Corps

Born in Norway in 1926, Knut and his mother made the crossing to Canada in 1928 to join Knut’s father, who already lived in Saskatchewan. The pair had just $25 to their name when they arrived at Pier 21 in Halifax. With a new country came many new experiences. One of the most memorable experiences for Knut was his mother’s story of the ‘rotten apples’. At the train station in Montreal, his mother’s fingers broke right through the skin of an apple. She thought, “Why are they giving us rotten fruit?” and discarded them in disgust. It wasn’t until they arrived in Saskatoon that they were introduced to peaches. Once introduced to peaches, “mom loved the fruit from that point on” he claimed.

His family settled north of Regina in Birch Hills, Saskatchewan, where they lived in a one-room cabin. Eventually, they grew tired of the cold weather and made the move to Powell River, where his father worked as a general labourer. His father “was an Electrician by trade in Norway, but couldn’t work in Canada without redoing his apprenticeship,” Knut recalled, “he took any job he could get.”

Knut’s father moved the family to Victoria, British Columbia in 1942 upon joining the Royal Canadian Corps of Signals. In 1944, Knut was 17 years old and wanted to support the Allies in the Second World War. Since 1940 the German Forces had invaded and occupied his homeland of Norway. Armed with an approval letter from his mother, he proceeded east to Gravenhurst, Ontario, to join the Norwegian Armed Forces in exile. The men who trained at the camp had completed their training and had already proceeded elsewhere by the time he arrived. While he was given the option to stay and serve as a guard, he craved something more meaningful. He applied for the Royal Canadian Air Force but was denied since he was still underage. He joined the Canadian Technical Training Corps (CTTC) instead. By 1943, the Canadian military was in desperate need of qualified tradesmen to service military equipment. The CTTC recruits were given one month of general military training, followed by a three-month orientation course. Knut apprenticed through the program as an electrician. 

Knut was billeted in the H-huts on Topaz Avenue in Victoria, in the area that later became Topaz Park. Each morning, they marched to their training downtown, would return for lunch, and then march back downtown for afternoon classes before finally returning home again for supper. “I don’t know how far it was, but it was several hours each day,” Knut recalls. “Twice a month, we had an additional four-hour route march!”

By the time Knut finished his training, the war had ended, and the CTTC was disbanded. Wanting to continue his military career, he enlisted in the Regular Armed Forces as part of the 3rd Canadian Artillery Battery. When they asked what he would like to do, he said, “I want to do electrical work,” but was told there was a surplus of electricians. When asked what else he enjoyed, he recalls telling them, “I used to help my mother baking… well, that was it, I ended up in Vancouver for a year as a baker” he said, “I was only able to bake for the year though. I enjoyed it and finished my time there, but the flour would irritate my skin. Something terrible.”

On a Signal Training Course in Kingston, Ontario, Knut met his wife Marjorie. She had been training as a nurse at the Hotel Dieu Hospital. “A bunch of us were set up on blind dates at a nurses’ dance. It didn’t cost me a thing! Of the group of us, Marjorie and I were the only ones still together ten years later.” Knut and his wife, Marjorie, later celebrated 62 years of marriage. They lived in Victoria West for 35 years, where they raised their four children. Returning to Victoria, Knut worked with the Department of National Defence as a Cleaning Services Foreman until his retirement in 1981. During this time, he continued as an Army Reservist with the 5th British Columbia Field Regiment and transferred as Regimental Sergeant Major with the Royal Canadian Army Service Corps in 1982. His wife, Marjorie, passed away in 2016, and Knut moved to Broadmead Care Centre in Victoria where he resides as of 2025.