Roger Teillet

Jean-Baptiste Roger Joseph Camille Teillet was born on River Road in St. Vital, Manitoba,[1] to Sara Riel and Camille Teillet.[2] Born into one of Manitoba's most well-known Métis families, Roger Teillet was a direct descendant of Marie-Anne Gaboury and Jean-Baptiste Lagimodière,[3] who were the first white settlers in Canada's west and were also the grandparents of Louis Riel. Roger was the grandson of Joseph Riel, Louis Riel's younger brother.[2]

Roger was educated in St. Vital and St. Boniface schools, and at St. Boniface College.

During the Second World War, Roger was a flight lieutenant in the Royal Canadian Air Force and a navigator on a Halifax bomber.[2] He took part in 24 successful bombing missions over Germany before being shot down over France in 1943. After evading German soldiers for 15 days, he was captured at the Rivière Cher, and spent almost three years as a prisoner of war in Stalag Luft III, located at Sagan (now Żagań, Poland), southeast of Berlin in the then-province of Silesia. Conditions in this camp were not as brutal as in many others because it was specifically made for officers, who were not subject to forced labour.[4] As a prisoner-of-war, he continued his studies through an educational program that was set up using the expertise of prisoners there.[2] (Stalag Luft III was made famous after the war because of Paul Brickhill's book, The Great Escape, a book which was also made into a film.)[4]

In January 1945, prisoners from camps all over Germany were herded from the camps and forced to walk the length and breadth of Germany, in an effort to evade the encroaching Allied armies. On 5 May 1945, Teillet and the others were turned over to the British Army not far from Bremen. Their guards surrendered and the prisoners were airlifted to Brussels.

Upon his return to Canada, Teillet went into the insurance business in Winnipeg.[2] He was a member of the Knights of Columbus and active in his Catholic parish of Précieux-sang. When his two sons, Philippe and Richard, were in school, he became a trustee in the separate school system.

Teillet had always been involved in politics: he was involved with the L'Union Nationale Métisse; was a party organizer before ever going overseas; and was an original members of the St. Vital Young Liberals when still a teenager. Now, in the post-war years, he became very active in the Manitoba Liberal Association, acting as the vice-president. He also served in many capacities on the federal liberal party's executive in Winnipeg South Centre.

Teillet was married to Jeanne Boux[3] of St. Boniface, Manitoba, with whom he had two sons, who in turn had two grandchildren. Their eldest son, Philippe Teillet, is a professor emeritus at the University of Lethbridge.

He died in Ottawa in 2002.[2] Jeanne predeceased him by two years, and their younger son, Richard, died of cancer in 2003. All three are buried in Green Acres Cemetery in St. Boniface.