Obituary of Doreen Jeannette Galvin

Passed away suddenly and peacefully in the morning of Wednesday February 22, 2017 at St. Mary's Hospital in Kitchener, the beloved wife of Brian James Boswell Galvin for 66 years. Only child of Henry and Jeannette Grey, Doreen was born in London, England, on September 14, 1919. In 1940, from her hillside home in Pett on the south coast of England, she watched the Battle of Britain being fought daily overhead, and this prompted her to volunteer for the Women's Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF). She was called up in 1941 and was trained initially as an aircraft plotter. Eight months later, she was commissioned as an Intelligence Officer. Her first duties were in photo interpretation; later she served in several Top Secret capacities on operational RAF stations, until the end of the war in 1945. After demobilization in 1946, Doreen returned to art studies she had started at Hastings just before the war and continued at the Central School of Arts and Crafts in London, England. She specialized in design and book illustration, including lithography, and later taught art at several schools in the London area until her marriage to Brian in 1950. Her first child, Ann, was born in 1951. The family moved from London back to Pett where, in Hastings, Brian, found a job in an accounting firm that enabled him to continue his studies to become a Chartered Accountant. They lived in Pett until Brian had qualified as a CA in 1953, when they decided to emigrate to Canada. His first appointment was at Queen's University at Kingston, Ontario, and it was in Kingston that her second child, Barbara, was born in 1958. The family moved to Toronto in 1963 and five years later, at the age of 48, Doreen began studying for a BA degree in Geography on a part-time basis. Her success in achieving a B+ average in her first six courses indicates what a gifted and determined person can do in later life. The cares of bringing up two children and the demands of her husband's job, left no time for her to complete her degree. She retained her interest in all things geographical for the rest of her life, particularly when travelling, not only in North America, but also in Europe, Asia and the Caribbean before and after her husband's retirement in 1986. Doreen returned to her artistic interests after a gap of nearly 40 years, and turned to a new medium, watercolours, many of which decorate her home and those of her family. All display a sense of the serenity, insight and love that was characteristic of Doreen herself. Doreen moved with Brian to Waterloo in 2013 to be closer to their grandchildren and delighted in their frequent visits. That year she also published "Arts to Intelligence", a memoir of WWII as seen through her eyes as a young woman in Britain. In 2015 Doreen revisited many of those places in England with her daughters as part of the Tempsford Veterans Reunion. She leaves behind her daughters Ann and her husband John, and Barbara and her husband Ron; her grandchildren Michael and his wife Roxana, Christina and Richard and his wife Christine; and her great grandchildren Mark, Elizabeth and another boy soon to arrive. Doreen truly has lived the RAF motto: Per Ardua ad Astra; "Through Adversity to the Stars". Friends are invited to share their memories of Doreen with her family during visitation at the Erb & Good Family Funeral Home, 171 King St. S., Waterloo, on Friday February 24, 2017 from 2-4 & 6-8 p.m. Parish Prayers will be offered Friday at 3:45 p.m. The Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated at St. Michaels R. C Church, 240 Hemlock Street, Waterloo, on Saturday February 25, 2017 at 11 a.m. with the Father David Walter as Celebrant. Interment to follow at Parkview Cemetery Waterloo. Condolences for the family and donations to the charity of your choice, (no flowers please) may be arranged through the funeral home at www.erbgood.com or 519.745.8445.