Donald Dennis Webster c1945

Donald Dennis Webster was born and educated in Galt, Ontario, Canada. At the age of 19 he went to Flint , Michigan where he joined Buick Motors as an apprentice. While on vacation in Toronto he met Phyllis Mary Train, the girlfriend of his cousin, Jim Cranston, and they were married the second time they met, a few months later. The first two years of their married life were spent in Flint, where their first son Donald was born.

This was the time of the Great Depression, and as things were much worse in the U.S. than in Canada the family returned to St. Catharines, Ontario in 1933 where Don was able to transfer to another General Motors plant -- McKinnon Industries. Children Nancy, Jim, David , and Linda were all born in St. Catharines.

During World War II he spent some time in England on a mission for the Canadian Government Department of Defence, during which time we have subsequently learned that he was one of the men who planned for the evacuation of the women and children of England in the event of invasion. His other activities included a submarine trip to Russia to confer about the solution to a problem of broken axles in Canadian made army vehicles in sub-zero weather. For the remainder of WWII he lived in Sevenoaks, Kent, bicycling on a machine with no tyres to the nearby aeronautical establishment where he worked with Richard Barnes- Wallis on various projects including the famous "Dam Busters Bomb", for which he designed the detonator.

Phyllis Mary Train c1929

He returned to Canada in late 1944 and resumed work with General Motors. For a time he served in The Royal Canadian Naval Reserve and was active in the training of Sea Cadets. In 1950 he was asked to join General Motors Overseas Operations, and moved with the family to Melbourne, Australia where he served for 12 years as Master Mechanic at General Motors-Holdens. He returned to Detroit in 1963 and three years later, after a short time in Argentina, he was assigned to G.M. of Mexico as Manager of Technical Liaison.

He retired in 1962, and he and Phyllis returned to live in Melbourne, as all five children had married and settled there. He was never bored during his retirement as he had many interests, including photography, stamp collecting, a love of languages (especially English) and history. He was a connoisseur of fine wines and visited many wineries both in Australia and abroad. He loved music, played the organ and had a large collection of records and tapes.

Donald was a very gentle man with a deep hatred of violence of any kind -- he loved his home and family above all things