The Icelandic connection - 01.12.2020, Page 19

Vol. 71 #4
ICELANDIC CONNECTION
161
PHOTOS AND IMAGES COURTESY OF KAREN BOTTING
Johanna Wilson reading die Veterans of Icelandic Descent Book World War II, in September, 2020
Veterans of Icelandic Descent
World War II
by Karen Botting
Three members of the Jon Sigurdsson
Chapter IODE valiantly took on the
task of creating a book honouring and
memorializing the men and women of
Icelandic descent who fought in World
War II. The result was Veterans of Icelandic
Descent World War IIpublished in 1990.
Although Johanna Wilson (Jo), Mae
(Dee Dee) Westdal and Dora Sigurdsson
were inspired by the women, including
Jo Wilson’s mother, Gudrun Skaptason,
who did the World War I book in 1923,