Highlighting a CPA Ontario Member: Percy Mount

Percy Mount is a father, grandfather, great-grandfather and a veteran of World War II in the British Armed Forces.   After the war ended, he was posted to the Sudan Defense Force and at age 23 he was finally demobilized and returned back home to England. Though Percy had a “non-combatant” role, he, like most veterans, recalls the war like it was yesterday.

In 1955, Percy and his wife immigrated to Canada and took up residence in Toronto.    Percy was fortunate as the skills he learned in the army lead to a job with the Ontario Government. Four years later,  at the age of 35 while working to rebuild a chimney on a downtown building, Percy was hit by the hoist, knocking him 65 feet off the building. He broke his back, both arms and wrists.

After six months in rehab at Lyndhurst Hospital, the day came when Percy was told he could work towards going home. He remembers Dr. Jousse telling him that if he wanted lunch that day he would have to go down to the lunchroom to get it himself. He didn’t understand until they came in with a wheelchair. Standing behind it and leaning on the handles, Percy pushed the chair, and for the first time in more than 150 days, he walked on his own to the lunchroom.  

It was not easy for Percy, but he did it. His wife visited him every day with their newborn son – the motivation Percy needed to recover. He rebuilt his life and was soon back at home with his wife and three children, and with the use of hand controls, driving his 1955 Chevy Bel Air station wagon again.  

Before his accident, Percy would have said that “Victory” was winning the war. Today Percy says, “Victory was recovering from my accident and walking with the aid of a walker into the arms of my wife and our three small children.”