On September 19, 2025, a Remembrance Ceremony is being held in Cobourg, Ontario for Fern Blodgett Sunde – the first Canadian female wireless radio operator who made 78 crossings of the Atlantic in WWII.
Remembrance Event
The Norwegian statue committee which unveiled a twin statue in Farsund Norway on May 8, 2025 will be in Cobourg along with the Norwegian Ambassador.
Cobourg Council approved plans to host the Norwegian ambassador and members of Fern Blodgett Sunde’s family in a special tribute to one of the town’s most remarkable figures.
The Remembrance Ceremony will be held as follows:
Date: September 19, 2025
Time: 2:30 to 4:30 pm
Place: Royal Canadian Legion Branch 133, 135 Orr Street, Cobourg, Ontario
Council’s decision supports a ceremony scheduled for September 19 at the statue honouring Blodgett Sunde in Victoria Park. It includes a temporary waiver of beach-area parking permit rules between noon and 3 pm so the public and dignitaries can attend more easily.
Blodgett Sunde, who grew up in Cobourg, became the first woman in the world to serve as a wireless radio operator at sea during the Second World War.
She joined the Norwegian merchant ship M/S Mosdale and completed 70 transatlantic crossings during the Battle of the Atlantic. In 1943, she became the first woman to receive the Norwegian War Medal for her service.
A twin statue was unveiled in her honour in Farsund, Norway last year, where she lived following the war. Her daughter, granddaughter, and great-grandson visited the Cobourg monument in 2023.
The September visit and ceremony will celebrate her international legacy of courage and service.
– Thanks to Joseph Goden for the text
A Tribute to Fern Blodgett Sunde (1918-1991)
A Tribute to Fern Blodgett Sunde (1918-1991)
The September-October 2019 issue of The Canadian Amateur magazine featured a special tribute article by Debra Dupuis. In 2020, the Cobourg Museum Foundation and a committee of volunteers will commemorate Fern Blodgett Sunde, the first female wireless radio operator (“Sparks”) at sea. Radio Amateurs of Canada was pleased to provide our support to this event by promoting it in our magazine, on our website and in social media. The complete article is available below in both PDF and text formats along with information on how to support the commemoration event.
In 2020, the Cobourg Museum Foundation and a committee of volunteers were pleased to commemorate Fern Blodgett Sunde, the first female wireless radio operator (“Sparks”) at sea. She served during the Battle of the Atlantic (1939-1945), making numerous North Atlantic crossings aboard a Norwegian merchant vessel, the M/S Mosdale. It was incredibly dangerous – the Mosdale, a fruit carrier, was one of six sister ships to start out in 1940. Only the Mosdale survived the war.
A bronze statue and plaque in remembrance of Fern, and of all Canadians who served at sea during the Battle, was erected at the Cobourg, Ontario waterfront. Sculptor Tyler Fauvelle, whose work includes more than a dozen public monuments in Ontario, three of which are military commemorations, will create the statue of Fern. The unveiling ceremony was held on October 17, 2020.