Jean E Portugal

Jean E. Portugal CM (April 19, 1921 – November 26, 2016) was an acclaimed Canadian military historian, author, and pioneering journalist whose monumental preservation of veterans' voices significantly enriched the country’s collective memory of the Second World War. Born in Toronto, she built an exceptional 53-year journalism career, breaking barriers in 1942 when she was hired by legendary novelist Robertson Davies to serve as a foreign news feature writer and military editor for [The Peterborough Examiner]. Over the following decades, she worked as a copy desk editor for The Globe and Mail and spent twenty years as an editor-in-chief for Maclean Hunter Limited. Following her retirement, Portugal embarked on a massive, thirteen-year oral history project, traveling across Canada to conduct extensive personal interviews with 750 World War II veterans across all ranks. Sponsored by the Royal Canadian Military Institute, her exhaustive research culminated in her definitive 1998 seven-volume anthology masterpiece, [We Were There: A Record for Canada](1.1.1, 1.3.1). The monumental series dedicates its massive final installment, [We Were There – Volume 7: The R.C.A.F. and Others](1.1.2, 1.1.8), to a powerful collection of firsthand experiences from Royal Canadian Air Force pilots, crew members, war correspondents, and resistance fighters. In recognition of her extraordinary dedication to preserving Canada’s military heritage, she was awarded an honorary Doctorate of Letters and appointed a Member of the Order of Canada.