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Born in 1933, Victor DiBello was a musician and conductor. In 1950, after playing in the East York Collegiate Orchestra, he founded the Pro Arte Orchestra of Toronto, originally an amateur group but later becoming a professional ensemble. As well as conducting the Pro Arte Orchestra, he was the conductor of the Hamilton Philharmonic from 1959 to 1962 and Music Coordinator, later Music Director, at the Stratford (Ont.) Festival in the 1960s.

David Diamant is the pseudonym of David Erlich, a Jewish communist and committed member of the underground resistance during World War II.

The Dickens Fellowship is an organization devoted to the study and appreciation of the works of Charles Dickens. It also has a philanthropic side in charitable causes related to children. Numerous branches of the Fellowship have been established throughout the world. The Hamilton branch (no. 47) was founded on 5 February 1908. It suspended its activities in 1912 and resumed meetings on 26 January 1931. The last known activity of the branch was at the Annual Conference held in Bath, May 1939, though it was still listed in the Dickensian, the Fellowship's journal, in the 1946/47 Winter issue. The Hamilton chapter is among the list of branches "lost during the war" in the Fall 1947 issue of the Dickensian.

Military Service Local Tribunals were set up throughout England during the First World War to hear pleas for exemption from military service. Grounds for exemption included poor health, essential work, family circumstances or conscientious objection. Diss is located in Norfolk, England.

Sarah Dixon, poet of Canterbury, was very born in 1671 at Rochester, Kent. Poems on Several Occasions is her only published book. For further information on Dixon, see Messenger, Pastoral Tradition and the Female Talent (2001)

Farzana Doctor is a Canadian writer, activist, and psychotherapist. Her writing has been described as contemporary literary fiction, with a hint of magic realism. Her books explore themes of loss, diasporic identity and the immigrant experience, LGBT rights, and others.

Her second novel, Six Metres of Pavement won the Dayne Ogilvie Grant and the Lambda Literary Award in 2012, as well as being shortlisted for the Toronto Book Award.

Doctor continues to have a private practice and lives with her partner in Toronto.

Dodd, Mead and Company was founded in New York city by Moses W. Dodd in 1839. It grew from a small religious publishing house into one of the leading publishing firms in the United States. The company's history was published in 1939 by Edward H. Dodd as The First Hundred Years.

Bruce Doherty was probably born during the 1890s in Mono, Ontario, where his father Joshua grew up and farmed after arriving from Ireland as a child. The family moved to Orangeville around 1909. Doherty served with the Royal Flying Corps during World War I, training at Armour Heights Camp in Toronto. Camp Mohawk in Deseronto and in Benbrook, Texas, the winter quarters of the RCF after the United States entered the war. Doherty survived the war but his date of death is not known.

Dominion Steel Casting Company Limited was incorporated under the Companies Act of the Dominion of Canada in 1912 by Clifton and Frank Sherman. They added the Dominion Steel Foundry Company in 1913. In 1917, they became Dominion Foundries and Steel Limited. The company officially changed its name to Dofasco in 1980, though it had long been a popular nickname. In 2006, they were acquired by Arcelor and are now a standalone subsidiary of ArcelorMittal.

Andy Donato was born in Scarborough, Ont. in 1937. He graduated from Danforth Technical School in 1955 and in 1961 he began working at the Toronto Telegram. After the Telegram went under in 1971, he joined the Toronto Sun. He retired from the Sun in 1996 but continued to publish cartoons there on a free-lance basis. His cartoons feature his signature “bird”. Some of his most famous work was done during the Pierre Trudeau and Joe Clark years in Ottawa. His work has won many awards including a National Newspaper Award. His work has also been published in book collections and has been exhibited in Toronto, New York, Johannesburg and London He has served as president of the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists and the Canadian Editorial Cartoonists.

Wallace McClung (Bud) Donnelly was born in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan on 15 October 1920, the son of Jesse and Mable V. Donnelly. He was a student at Kirkland Lake Collegiate in 1932-34. His family moved to Hamilton, Ontario in 1934 where he attended Westdale Secondary School. At McMaster University he studied sciences and enrolled in the Canadian Officers' Training Corps.

In February 1942, he went overseas with the Royal Canadian Dragoons, achieving the rank of Captain. From February to December 1944, he was a wireless instructor at Britain's Royal Military College in Sandhurst. He then joined the Phantom regiment. In March 1945 in Holland and Belgium, he was a member of the No. 5 Squadron of the British Army's Special Air Service Brigade (also known as the Belgian SAS). After World War II, he continued his military career, first with the Kent Regiment in Niagara. He took further training and was stationed at: Camp Borden; Rivers, Shilo, and Churchill, Manitoba; Fort Benning, Georgia; Great Britain; Dartmouth, Nova Scotia; and Petawawa, Ontario. In April 1947 the Belgian government awarded Donnelly the Croix de Guerre avec palme for courage and bravery in the liberation of Belgium. He retired from the Canadian military in January 1951. For further information on Donnelly's military career, see: John Burman, "Bud's Role Pivotal in Fighting Nazis", Hamilton Spectator, 2 December 2005, pp. A1, A8; and Buzz Boudon, "Bud Donnelly, Soldier and War Hero 1920-2005", Toronto Globe and Mail, 6 January 2005, p. R5.

Donnelly was a real estate appraiser and broker in Hamilton. He married Jean Blackburn of Ottawa (who served as an ambulance driver in London, England during World War II). They had two children, Judy and Jennifer. Donnelly died of emphysema on 29 November 2005.

Thomas Sackville, first Earl of Dorset, barrister, member of parliament, and poet. Sackville was born in 1536 at Buckhurst, Surrey and perhaps educated at Hart Hall, Oxford and St. John's College, Cambridge. He became a barrister in the Inner Temple and a member of parliament, 1558-1563. In 1567 he was raised to the peerage as Baron Buckhurst, and in 1608 was created Earl of Dorset. He served as an ambassador and then lord treasurer from 1599 until his death at his desk in Whitehall, London, 19 April 1608. Sackville was also an accomplished poet.

Robert (Bob) Edmund Dorsey was born in Hamilton, Ontario on December 4, 1919 to Annie and Josiah (Joe) Joshua Dorsey. Dorsey attended McMaster University and graduated with a BA in 1941. He excelled in tennis and badminton, winning the singles tennis championship in a district meet in 1939, and competing in badminton tournaments at the Thistle Club to become Hamilton’s singles champion for two consecutive years.

During his time at McMaster, Dorsey trained as a cadet in the McMaster Contingent of the Canadian Officers' Training Corps (COTC). He completed his military training in 2 years and was named a 2nd lieutenant in 1942, enlisting in active service in May of the same year. While stationed at Camp Gordon, Dorsey completed the requirements to become a lieutenant. He then acted as a training centre instructor in Simcoe and Brantford. In 1943, he married Florence Kathleen Riley. Florence and Dorsey had one son, John Josiah, born February 1, 1944, whom Dorsey never had the opportunity to meet.

After being transferred to the Canadian Army (Active Force) Overseas, Dorsey boarded a ship for England, where he joined to the 5th Canadian Reinforcement Unit. He was assigned to the 7th Brigade Group, 3rd Canadian Division a month later. In the spring of 1944, Dorsey became a reinforcement officer for the Cameron Highlanders of Ottawa, a machine gun and mortar regiment designated for active service. Dorsey was involved in their pre-invasion training prior to the D-Day operation. He co-founded a frontline regimental newspaper called “The Rocket.” Dorsey was killed at Normandy on June 7, 1944. He was given full military honours in a burial ceremony at Beny-sur-Mer Canadian War Cemetery, Reviers in Calvados, France.

Allan Burgess Dove, wire engineer and metallurgist, was born in Ayr, Scotland on 9 April 1909. He immigrated to Canada with his family in 1913. He attended Queen's University where he graduated with a BSc. in Chemical Engineering in 1932. Throughout his career Dove worked at Stelco's Canada Works in Hamilton, Ont. and Lachine, Que. as a Plant Engineer, Wire Mill Engineer, Superintendent, and Senior Development Metallurgist. An active member of the Wire Association International and other professional organizations, he edited the Steel Wire Handbook (4 vols., 1967-1980) and co-edited Ferrous Wire with Robert F. Dixon and Regina Robert (2 vols., 1990). In addition to his professional and scientific career, Dove was active in the Canadian military, beginning as a Private with the 91 Princess Louise Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders of Canada in 1925. After his retirement in 1974, Dove remained a consultant to Stelco as well as for other clients. He died on 24 July 1989.

Eric Dowling was born on 8 November 1907 in Sheffield, England. He emigrated to Canada in 1923 with his parents. He was educated at the Toronto (now the Royal) Conservatory. He worked at a number of churches in Ontario before he was appointed organist and choirmaster at St. George's Anglican Church in St. Catharines where he was to serve for thirty-eight years. He was a member of the Royal Canadian College of Organists, serving as president from 1948-1950 and a composer of both choral and organ works. He was one of the founders of the Niagara Peninsula Centre. Eric Dowling died on 14 February 1991 in St. Catharines.

John Drinkwater, poet, playwright, and actor was born in Leystonstone, Essex on 1 June 1882 and educated at Oxford High School. He was co-founder of an amateur dramatic society, the Pilgrim Players, in 1907. He went on to become the manager of the then fledgling Birmingham Repertory Theatre where he also acted. He is best known for a series of historical plays beginning with Abraham Lincoln. He died in London on 25 March 1937.

Morris Hayne Austin 'Boy' Drury, OBE, CD, was born in Sherbrooke, Quebec on 10 October 1896. Drury was a member of the Royal Canadian Dragoons Permanent Force when he enlisted with the Canadian Over-Seas Expeditionary Force in December 1915. Prior to enlisting Drury also had experience as a Lieutenant with the 11th Hussars and had completed one year at the Royal Military College as a cadet. After the First World War, he formed the Canadian Army Equestrian Jumping Team, which entertained spectators throughout the Great Depression. He retired from the military in 1946 and became Commandant of the Toronto Division for twenty-two years. He died in 1977.

Maureen Duffy was born on 21 October 1933 in Worthing, Sussex and educated at King's College, London. She has published in many genres but is primarily known as a novelist. Her first novel was That's How It Was (1962). "Josie" was broadcast on television in 1961.

Nora Mabel Duncan, nee Dann, was born in 1881. She published a few volumes of poetry with the North Shore Press in North Vancouver, B.C. The poems in this collection were presumably written while she was on vacation in Quebec. In 1908, she married banker Wallace Craig Duncan (1871-1937). They had two daughters in Calgary, before moving to Vancouver. She was on a train, headed west to attend her daughter's wedding when she suddenly collapsed and died.