It was an unlikely reunion around six decades ago, but it was a powerful moment for a man who fought to defend his country, and just as much so for the man he liberated, and it all happened in Newcastle.
James Treanor was born in Glasgow, Scotland, in 1913, and his father, John, served in World War I with the 9th Battalion Highland Light Infantry. He died on September 26, 1917, in Flanders.
At just nine years of age, James boarded the Mountlaurier, sailed from Glasgow to New Brunswick and was placed on a train on December 22, 1923. He celebrated Christmas alone on the train before he arrived in his new home in Drumheller.
At age 26, he followed in his father’s footsteps and enlisted with the 2nd Field Battery RCA in Calgary in 1939. He served in the United Kingdom and Continental Europe for the duration of the war. He was discharged with the title of Sergeant. He was decorated with the 1939-1945 STAR, the France/Germany Star, the Defense of Britain Medal, the Canadian Volunteer Service Medal and Clasp and a letter of commendation from Field Marshall B.L. Montgomery.
He saw many things during his service, but one of the most horrific was the liberation of Bergen Belsen. This concentration camp was located in Northern Germany between Hamburg and Hanover. In April 1945, the allied forces entered Bergen Belsen and discovered 60,000 starving and sick prisoners and 13,000 bodies. Despite the efforts, many prisoners died.
After the war, Treanor returned to Drumheller. He married and went to work in the mines. He had two children, Bonnie and Billie, and resided in Newcastle.
His daughter, Bonnie Bellrose, said it was an interesting time growing up in Newcastle. The neighbourhood was made up of squatter homes, and there was a great mixture of different cultures. She can still smell all the cooking and the opera played by her Italian neighbour every Sunday.
“There was a whole different United Nations down there, and all these little towns were like that,” recalls Bellrose.
She recalls one particular day as a grade school student coming home from the Newcastle Cottage School, she found her parents very upset. She learned that her father had just walked to the post office to pick up the mail, and he met one of their neighbours, Walter Malenko, a fellow miner.
“Walter had approached my father and gave him a big bear hug, then with tears streaming down his face shook my father’s hand and thanked him for saving his life,” Bellrose recounts in a written biography of her father.
It turns out Malenko had been a prisoner in Bergen Belsen, and he was one of the prisoners that Treanor’s Unit had liberated.
“Walter told dad he had helped him when he couldn’t help himself and had promised himself that he would never forget his face,” wrote Bellrose.
She shared her story of her father and Malenko in a written collection that accompanies the banners the Drumheller Genealogy Club and Legion have partnered on and are hanging throughout downtown.
At that time just two doors were separating the families recalls Bellrose. Walter and his wife Marian had two children, a boy and a girl. While they were neighbours, they never became close friends. This was around the time the mines in the valley were beginning to close and many miners sought work elsewhere. While they never kept track, it’s quite possible that Malenko could have headed to the Crowsnest Pass or Canmore to continue mining or found work elsewhere.
“I think they were one of the families that went down there because basically, that was all he knew too, just like dad,” said Bellrose.
She recalls that after Bonnie married, she and her husband bought the Malenko family home to start their life.
Treanor stayed with the mine until it closed. He developed black lung and other ailments from mining. He worked as an ambulance attendant and as a gardener at the nursing home before he retired.

For many men in times of conflict, they were called upon to serve their country. There was no question. It was for the good and the safety of Canadians. For Shaun Erickson, his calling came from within and not from the outside.
Erickson came to Drumheller earlier this year to work at the Drumheller Institution. He sat down with the Mail and detailed a military career spanning over three decades and took him to some of the most war torn places on the globe, and he did it in service of Canadians.
He first joined up as an Air Cadet, and not as a Sea Cadet, in Sydney Nova Scotia. He laughs and says most islanders do go into the water.
“Have you ever been in the ocean?” he chuckles.
He joined up at 13 with the Cadets with the dream of being a pilot.
When he was of age in 1983, he joined the army reserves and was trained as a medic. After a year and a half, he moved to Gagetown, New Brunswick, where he was employed full-time. He took on various roles. He transferred to the Royal New Brunswick regiment in Fredricton where he engaged as a mechanic.
In 1989, he joined the regular force army.
“The first question out was, do you like camping?” he chuckles.
He joined Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry (PPCLI). His basic training was in Cornwallis, and then his trades training was in Wainwright. He was in the infantry and was stationed in Winnipeg. They would train and do exercises in Shilo. It was work-up training for Bosnia in 1992, before his tour in1993.
He was primarily stationed in the Medak Pocket in the former Yugoslavia for his six-month tour in support of the United Nations Mission. His role was as a driver for a liaison officer.
“We went everywhere,” he said.
He explained the liaison officer’s responsibility was information gathering, and also was at times an intermediary with the command on the opposite side.
Most of this travelling was in an old jeep with a canvas roof and no doors. it was rugged and dangerous terrain, and there were times they were under fire.
“When you are there because of your training, you are ready to go, everything can fall into place because this is what you are trained for and you are ready to go,” he said. “When you get out of there, nothing falls into place. You get so used to it that you understand it more than anything else.”
He returned to Manitoba, but in 1997 he returned to the former Yugoslavia. He was in a different, quieter section. He drove a Grizzly armoured vehicle, and as part of a section did patrol.
“We helped rebuild what was blown up, which was just about everything,” he said.
In 2000, he changed his badge from PPCLI to Signals. He trained as a communications technician. He spent two years in Kingston training and then was stationed back in Gagetown. He travelled all over doing new installations of communication equipment and armour before vehicles went over to Afghanistan.
In 2005, he put his new skills to the test in Afghanistan for a few months. While sometimes soldiers stationed in Afghanistan don’t leave the base, his signal corp went everywhere.
“When you go anywhere in the vehicles outside the wire, your weapon is loaded and cocked, and put on safety and away you go,” he said. “Ready to rock when you have to be.”
At the base and in the field, mortars were a regular occurrence. Part of his job was to install and repair radar that would track where the rounds were coming from. When it was pinpointed through triangulation, they would send aircraft to bomb the source. Often the shooter would get away and be in hiding.
Shortly after this tour, he worked as an instructor. He was promoted to Sargeant and was posted to Shilo in Manitoba in 2010. In his new role, he was off the bench and took on an administrative role. He retired in 2013.
“I loved my service it was the greatest. You meet a lot of people and they are great,” he said.
He adds there is a high level of camaraderie and trust.
“It’s the infantry, you have to (trust) You are both carrying a full load of ammunition and you are going at this guy with this group. You have to trust he is covering your butt. If he is not covering your butt, you are not going to last the seven seconds.”
He adds that discipline has served him all of his life.
“It was a lot of hard work, and there were also a lot of good times,” he said.
He has been involved in Legion in Drumheller since he came to Drumheller in March. He says there is a strong sense of camaraderie and support. He says the Legion is supportive when working with Veterans Affairs. He believes that once the next generation of people who served begin to see the support the Legion provides, they will seek it out.