Hormidas Joseph Fredette

** UPDATED SERVICE DATE ** 

The Funeral Service for Hormidas Fredette will now be held at 2:00 p.m. on Thursday, December 7, 2023 in St. Joseph's Roman Catholic Church, Kentville.

Hormidas Joseph Fredette

April 11, 1917 – November 29, 2023 

It is with great sorrow that we announce the passing of Hormidas Joseph Fredette, beloved father of Ronald and Brian; grandfather of Vincent and Laurena; and great grandfather of Claudia and Natasha Dembek. He was also the loving husband of the late, Lillian Mitcham Fredette, who died in 1989. Hormidas was born in 1917, April 11th in the countryside near Richmond, Quebec, his hometown. Hormidas came from a large family consisting of father, Pierre Fredette and mother, Clara Prince Fredette; brothers, Aimé, Gerard, Pierre, Lucien, Rosario (who died at age 4) and sisters, Irene, Aurise, Alvina and Blanch. His father owned a farm in Upper Melbourne, Quebec and he worked on his father’s farm at a young age as well as on neighbouring farms and as a lumberjack in Northern Quebec. In the 1930’s Hormidas joined the Militia where he learned to fire a Vickers Machine Gun, a skill which would come in handy at the Battle of Hong Kong in 1941. At the outbreak of WWII, Hormidas joined the Royal Rifles of Canada and was stationed in St. Johns, Newfoundland, where he met Lillian who he became engaged to. She would wait four long years for his return from war and imprisonment. Shipped out to Hong Kong in 1941, Hormidas fought valiantly with his fellow Royal Rifles and Winnipeg Grenadiers against the overwhelming Japanese Invaders. Employing his skill as a machine gunner, Hormidas fired a Vickers Machine Gun at its maximum range and still hit all his targets, impressing his officer, Mr. Lester. Hormidas was captured on December 25, 1941, when the forces defending Hong Kong surrendered to the Japanese and would spend the next three years and eight months being malnourished, beaten and used as slave labour. Liberated by the Americans in August 1945, Hormidas lost no time in returning to St. Johns to marry his sweetheart, Lillian. After the war, he settled in Richmond where he worked for Canadian National Railway for eight years. Then after CNR moved his section to Montreal, Hormidas found work at the Domtar Pulp and Papermill in the next town of Windsor, Quebec, where he worked until he retired in 1979 and raised his family. Hormidas, Lillian and Brian moved to New Minas in 1979, where Lillian passed away in 1989 and he and Brian lived together, with Ronald living just down the street until Hormidas passed away at age 106. He was the last of the veterans who fought so bravely in defense of Hong Kong and endured terrible captivity in Japan. A true hero who will be greatly missed. There will be a funeral service for Hormidas to be held at 2:00 p.m. on Thursday, December 7, in the St. Joseph’s Roman Catholic Church, Kentville. Interment will take place in Holy Cross Cemetery, Kentville. Donations in memory may be made to a charity of choice. Funeral arrangements have been entrusted to the White Family Funeral Home and Cremation Services, Kentville.