Prominent Sask. WWII veteran Denis Chisholm dies at 90

Denis Chisholm, who spoke to many school children about his experiences as a soldier during the Second World War, has died at 90.

Chisholm died peacefully surrounded by his family on Jan. 3, an obituary notice said.

For decades he had been involved in veteran events and was a frequent speaker at schools around Remembrance Day.

He said hundreds of members of his regiment were killed in action, and a lot of them he knew.

"For a lot of veterans, Remembrance Day is pretty well every day," he told the Morning Edition in 2000. "I'll be thinking about my old buddies."

Chisholm was 16 and attending high school in Prince Albert when he lied about his age to enlist in the Regina Rifles Regiment.

At first, they turned him down, but, as he later told an interviewer, they needed a bugler and he could play the bugle.

Chisholm was not yet 20 by the time he arrived in France in 1944. He then fought through Europe with his Saskatchewan comrades until they ended their war on the Dutch-German border in the spring of 1945.

When he returned to Saskatchewan, he became a member of the RCMP. Later, he began a long career with the Regina Police Service, where he reached the rank of deputy chief before retiring in 1980.

He's survived by Edith, his wife of 67 years, five children, fourteen grandchildren and 13 great-grandchildren.

Funeral arrangements were not immediately available.