A venerable citizen with a unique link to Newfoundland’s involvement in WWII, celebrated his 103rd birthday yesterday.
Hedley Lake of Fortune is the last living survivor of the Caribou disaster.
The passenger ferry was torpedoed by a German U-boat in the Cabot Straight on October 13, 1942. 136 of the 237 civilians and military personnel on board the vessel were killed.
Lake, a Royal Navy sailor coming home on leave, was 24 years old when the Caribou went down.
The WWII veteran now lives at Kingsway Retirement Home in Grand Bank, having only moved into the facility in the last year.
