Marge McCreight met Jack at a dance held at the Servicemen's Club which was part of Eaton's Department store in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada in 1943. All Marge's friends liked Navy men, but Jack approached her and ask her if she would talk to an Airman. He was part of the RCAF, Royal Canadian Air Force and he was 20 years old.
Marriage Before Military Service
At 17 my mother, Margorie Emma Amelia McCreight, had her first job as a stenographer at Monarch Life Assurance Co. in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. She earned $48.00 a month as a mortgage collector.1 When she met my father, Jack Graves, she was a young woman of 19, on her own, working in Winnipeg. The young men going into service during WWII wanted to have someone waiting for them back home. My mother admitted her mixed emotions about marrying a soldier she barely knew. 
She married my father, Ross Graves, then known as Jack on 8 January 1944. After their marriage she went to live with her in-laws in Calgary, Alberta, Canada while he went overseas to fight in WWII. They owned a grocery store in Calgary, Alberta during the time she stayed with them.2
Military History of Jack Clifford Graves
In October 1943 he was sent to bombing and gunnery training in Dafoe, Saskatchewan, Canada. During Christmas holidays that year, he returned to Calgary to have his appendix out. On January 3, 1944 he returned to Winnipeg as he was leaving for overseas on the 13th. He married Marge on January 8, 1944.
Jack flew 29 missions over "enemy territory" (from Marge's autobiography). She did not elaborate on the location. His plane was hit twice. He flew with a crew as a WAG (Wireless Air Gunner). There were two men to a plane. Trin was a young man from Trinidad who was with them. Also Hal, the pilot. And they brought along Louie, the monkey mascot!
On the back of this picture is Jack's signature and the notation "3 W.T.S." as well as the date 31-8-43. The letters stand for War Training Service.
The plane was an Avro Lancanster. The Avro Lancaster was a British four-engined Second World War heavy bomber designed and built by Avro for the Royal Air Force (RAF). It first saw active service with RAF Bomber Command in 1942 and, as the strategic bombing offensive over Europe gathered momentum, it became the main heavy bomber used by the RAF. 
Jack had two brothers who were also in the air force. Jack was in pilot training on base in Winnipeg. He was born in Calgary, Alberta, Canada on August 23, 1923.
Sent to Scotland
Jack was sent to Delbert, Nova Scotia, Canada where he waited until Feb. 22 to depart Canada. He and Marge had very little time together before he left for England. They corresponded. He wrote about his weekends in Scotland where he met a girl. This can't have made Marge very happy. She was staying with his parents in Calgary and was bored and lonely. This happened to many young people during WWII. They got married quickly before the men had to leave. Then they were separated for a year or more, without really knowing one another. Upon his return the young couple had to get to know each other in their first year of marriage
In Feb. 1945 Jack returned to Winnipeg. He had been promoted to Pilot Officer. During the war, Marge received $67 a month allowance. After he returned, Jack was given "re-establishment credit," which he used to buy his father's grocery store in Calgary. It was located in an area known as Sunnyside.