A lot of books bring back special memories for people, but Dru Deeks of Victoria has a remarkable connection to one of the half-million books donated for the massive Times Colonist Book Sale this weekend.
Deeks, 82, is among 125 volunteer sorters organizing donated books at the Victoria Curling Club, site of the sale.
She was sorting books in the foreign language section when the sorter next to her, a veteran sorting military books, brought a book to her attention — Deadly Seas: The Story of the St. Croix, the U305 and the Battle of the Atlantic (by David J. Bercuson, Random House, 1997).
“We had talked off and on over the years — I knew he had been in the navy and he knew my brother Bill had been in the navy,” Deeks said.
When she saw the book, she was amazed. Her brother Bill Deeks, then 18, was on the St. Croix when it was torpedoed by a German submarine.
“In the middle of the book … there are photographs,” Deeks said. “There is a photograph and it says they feel it’s the last photograph ever taken of the complete company of the St. Croix.”
She has tried to identify her brother using a magnifying glass, but the photo is grainy and she hasn’t had time to really look at it. She’s aware of the St. Croix’s story because her mother did research after the war.
“My mother had been able to contact a German submariner after the war … who gave her communications between the St. Croix, the Itchen and the Polyanthus, the third ship coming in to pick up survivors,” Deeks said.
Bill Deeks was among half of St. Croix’s crew that survived the North Atlantic torpedoing on Sept. 20, 1943.
He and other sailors were picked up by the British naval vessel HMS Itchen, which, the next day was struck also by a torpedo. All but one St. Croix sailor were lost.
Bill Deeks was among the dead. Dru, had seen him in the summer if 1943 when he got leave to come back to the family home near Vernon in the Okanagan.
“He and I were walking along the road and somehow the subject of my December birthday came up. He said, ‘I’ll send you a birthday present — I’ll send you two dollars,’ ” Deeks said.
“In those days, two dollars was a lot of money. This is still in my mind — he owes me two dollars!” she said with a laugh.
“That was the last time we saw him. We took him to Sicamous and he took the train back to Halifax.”
Book sale organizer Bob Taylor said a record number of books, more than 500,000, were donated this year and they run the gamut from best sellers to classics, heavyweight literature to fast reads.
Proceeds go to promote literacy programs on Vancouver Island.
“Books are important to people,” Taylor said. “For kids, especially, parents need to be reading books to kids and kids need to be reading books to parents.”
> Times Colonist Book Sale, Saturday and Sunday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Victoria Curling Club, 1952 Quadra St.
