Vera Licence

Source Citation:
Archives of Ontario; Toronto, Ontario, Canada; Registrations of Births and Stillbirths, 1869-1913; Series: MS929; Reel: 92; Record Group: RG 80-2

Year: 1891; Census Place: Port Elgin, Bruce North, Ontario, Canada; Roll: T-6328; Family No: 314

Year: 1901; Census Place: Toronto (East/est) (City/Cité) Ward/Quartier No 2, Toronto (East/est) (City/Cité), Ontario; Page: 3; Family No: 25

Year: 1911; Census Place: 130 - Ward 6, Toronto West, Ontario; Page: 1; Family No: 2

Archives of Ontario; Toronto, Ontario, Canada; Registrations of Marriages, 1869-1928; Reel: 151

Ancestry.com. U.S., Border Crossings from Canada to U.S., 1895-1960 

Year: 1920; Census Place: Brooklyn Assembly District 21, Kings, New York; Roll: T625_1177; Page: 7B; Enumeration District: 1329

Year: 1930; Census Place: Freeport, Nassau, New York; Page: 17A; Enumeration District: 0025; FHL microfilm: 2341193

Year: 1940; Census Place: Hempstead, Nassau, New York; Roll: m-t0627-02684; Page: 10A; Enumeration District: 30-42

Ancestry.com. New York, New York, U.S., Extracted Death Index, 1862-1948 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2014.

American Battle Monuments Commission; Arlington, VA; Cemetery Records

"U.S., School Yearbooks, 1880-2012"; School Name: Freeport High School; Year: 1940

     Vera Robinson Licence was born in Port Elgin, Bruce County, Southwestern Ontario, Canada on the 3rd of September 1889.  The Bruce Pennisula lies between the Georgian Bay and the main basin of Lake Huron and is known for exceptional scenery.

Vera's parents, Alfred Henry Robinson and Ena Viola Shannon, had four other children: Agnes, Jennie Kathleen, Reta Florence, and Norvall Clifford.  Vera's father, Alfred, died in 1923 at just 56 years.  

By 1901, according to the Canada Census, the Robinson family had re-located to Toronto.  The next census in 1911 records Vera working full time as a hairdresser.  In June of that same year, Vera married fellow Canadian, Robert Frank Licence, a traveling salesman.

In 1916, Vera, Robert and infant son, Ralph, moved to New York to build a new life in the United States.  The family settled in Brooklyn and another son, Fred Robinson, was born there in 1919, followed by Robert John in 1924 and daughter, Vivian Jean in 1925.

By 1930, the family had moved to Freeport, Hempstead, in Long Island.  Tragically, daughter, Vivian Jean, died in 1936 when just eight years old and her grandmother, Ena, only one year later in 1937.   

In 1940, Ralph Licence, registered for the draft of WWII and in 1941 enlisted with the U.S. Army.  He served with the 4th Infantry Division and died in Basse-Normandie, France, in July 1944 shortly after D-Day.  Ralph, a Purple Heart Medal recipient, is buried in the Normandy American Cemetery.  Memorialized alongside Ralph is his brother, Fred, a pilot with the 2nd Bomber Group who lost his life in February 1944 over the beachhead at Anzio, Italy.  Fred is a recipient of the Purple Heart and 8 Oak Leaf Cluster Air Medals.  Vera and Robert had now lost three of their four children.

Robert Licence Jr., served with the U.S. Navy and received a veteran's burial in National Calverton Cemetery, New York, in 1995.

Vera Licence died at St. John's Episcopal Hospital, Far Rockaway, New York, on the 6th of March 1986 and was buried on Hart Island on the 2nd of September 1986.