My name is Ralph Cathline, I am the Author of a Cathline Family Book, compiled in 1980, (now out of print), The research took about ten years, although I could have added to it over the years many times, I did try to amend, and update my own copy.

I was born in 1916, and my Sister Freda and I were raised by our Dad Chester. Our mother Florence gave birth to a stillborn baby boy about a year after I was born. The marriage was not working and my mother left for the USA with us babies, but Dad had the Mounties stop her at the border at St. Stephen, NB. She left again for Montreal when I was 2½ years old. My Dad took my sister and I to Montreal by rail to get her to come back. I remember the steam locomotive, to me it was a giant, black scary thing puffing steam!

I remember in Montreal that I was crying and my mother put me on the can, gave me an orange to keep me quiet! It was a small little cubby hole and a little pipe coming out of the wall, and it was a burning flame (gas light). I did not see her again until I was about nine years old boarding with my great Aunt Kate Palmer, next door to a Keithlin family, at 21 Delhi St., Saint John, NB.

She just visited a short time! I saw her again when I arrived in Bonaventure Railway Station in Montreal, while on draft for overseas, 1941.

It was a hard struggle through the depression years, and my Dad worked in a brass foundry when he could. I sold newspapers, and picked up coal on the railroad tracks, gathered shingles and lath, etc., from demolished buildings to keep the house warm (Dad worked in that foundry for fifty years and I worked there for one year, then in the machine shop as a brass finisher.) Dad and I would go to the Court House each week and receive a food voucher (it was called relief), but we survived! Potatoes and molasses were the order of the day, and a fish called Gaspereau from the fish monger, cost five cents, was a treat, but full of bones!

I met and married a young Irish-Canadian miss, by the name of Rita Alice Meahan when we were twenty, and we were married on the 12th. June 1937 on $9.60 a week of 45 hours at T. McAvity & Sons Machine Shop! We raised four children, three girls and a boy. World War Il came along in Sept. of ’39, when we had the first two girls, and I volunteered in the  3rd. N.B.Coast Regt,RCA, and then transfered on the 4th. Nov., 1940, in the 4th Army Field Workshop, Royal Canadian Ordnance Corps. amd then in the Royal Canadian Electrical and Mechanical Engineers, May 15th, 1944, and served until Jan.1947. I then became a civilian until August of 1949, when I decided to re enlist as an Armourer and served in the Regular Peacetime Army until May 1967.

I took up Rifle Marksmanship in the early 50’s and became quite proficient at it, breaking records at 800 & 1000 yards in Quebec and the United States that had been around since 1869 in Quebec and around 1937 in the States! The score was 24 v bulls eyes  at 1000 yards ! I was able to qualify for the Canadian Rifle Team to Bisley, England 12 times and did compete for Canada in the National Rifle Competitions at Bisley 9 times, and represented Canada at the British Empire and Commonwealth Games in 1966 (This won him the title The Steady Sergeant by his comrades).

The Good Lord has given us all a gift, and it is up to each of us to find out what that gift is, and put it to use. I believe He gave me two, both being “service”, and I do believe researching the Family History, and getting it in book form for all Members of the Cathline clan to read and enjoy, is the first gift!

Now the Cathline Family Tree (except the folk stories) are on this Web Site for all to see! This is the second gift! We hope that it will give much information to all who read it!

Ralph B. Cathline
The Steady Sergeant

The founder of this website RALPH CATHLINE passed away suddenly on November 5th, 2014. The Family plans to continue maintaining the site for the foreseeable future.

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CANADIAN FORCES SPORTS
HONOUR ROLL

Canadian Forces Sports Hall of Fame

Kochlin Family Crest