| rdfs:comment | - Bull was born in North Bay, Ontario, to George L.T. and Gertrude Isabelle LaBrosse Bull. George Bull was from a family from the Trenton area and had moved to North Bay in 1903 to start a law firm. As a Catholic, LaBrosse would have been forbidden from marrying Bull, as he was Anglican. Bull converted to Catholicism on February 20, 1909, and the two married three days later. Over the next few years the couple had 10 children: Bernice Gwendolyn Florence, Henry, Philis, Charles Esmond, Clyde, Vivian, Ronald, Frank, Gerald, and Gordon.
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| abstract | - Bull was born in North Bay, Ontario, to George L.T. and Gertrude Isabelle LaBrosse Bull. George Bull was from a family from the Trenton area and had moved to North Bay in 1903 to start a law firm. As a Catholic, LaBrosse would have been forbidden from marrying Bull, as he was Anglican. Bull converted to Catholicism on February 20, 1909, and the two married three days later. Over the next few years the couple had 10 children: Bernice Gwendolyn Florence, Henry, Philis, Charles Esmond, Clyde, Vivian, Ronald, Frank, Gerald, and Gordon. George Bull was offered the position of King's Counsel in 1928. The family was well off, but the Wall Street Crash of 1929 and ensuing Great Depression dramatically changed their circumstances. Within a year the loans Bull had taken to buy stocks on margin were called in, and the family was forced to move to Toronto to look for work. The next year Gertrude Bull suffered complications while giving birth to Gordon. She died April 1, 1931. George Bull suffered a nervous breakdown and fell into heavy drinking; he left his children in the care of his sister Laura, who fell victim to cancer and died in mid-1934. The next year, banks foreclosed on the family home. The same year, George, at the age of 58, met and married Rose Bleeker. He gave up the children to various relatives: Gerald ending up living with his older sister Bernice. In 1938, Gerald was sent to spend the summer holidays with his uncle and aunt, Philip and Edith LaBrosse (Philip was the younger brother of Gerald's mother Gertrude). During the Depression, Phil and Edith had won about $175,000 in the Irish Sweepstakes, so were relatively well off. Gerald was sent to an all-boys school run by the Jesuit order, Regiopolis College in Kingston. Despite his being too young to attend, the school allowed him to start in 1938 and he returned to spend the summers with the LaBrosses. During this time he took up the hobby of building balsa wood airplanes of his own design, and was a member of the school's modeling club. He graduated in 1946.
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