The memorial at Vimy does not have all of the names on it of those who died from their wounds received at Vimy. My great uncle is one of those who were left off. It is quite simply a wrong that should be corrected. Here is the text of a speech my mother (Lorna Milne) gave while she was a Senator on this issue. It is a great speech (and a quick read). Speech delivered in the Senate of Canada , November 11th, 2006. Honourable Senators; I want to congratulate and thank Senator Dallaire for bringing us all up to date on the restoration of that magnificent testimonial to Canadas enormous sacrifice on Vimy Ridge in 1917. So many fine young men died during those few days and their names are proudly inscribed on the Canadian National Vimy Memorial there on that hilltop where Canada ‘came of age. What we all tend to forget is that many other fine young Canadians also died, sometimes years later, as a result of those few terrible days and their graves are found in quiet cemeteries across France, England and here in Canada. Wherever there was a hospital where Canadians were treated or sent to convalesce you will find such graves. You will find them at Cannes in France, in Birmingham, at Shoreham-on-Sea near Hastings, at Uxbridge, at Orpington, and just outside Buxton in the Hill District of England. You also will find them in quiet country graveyards all across Canada. Many of these young men were either gassed or wounded before or during the battle for Vimy Ridge and some of them suffered for months and years before eventually dying as a direct result of that battle. They died in agony from gangrene and the infections caused by filthy conditions and unclean surgical instruments. They drowned in their own body fluids. They died from secondary infections due to the permanent damage the gas had done to their lungs. They died. Let me tell you the story of one such young man. He was born on a farm near the hamlet of Dromore in Grey County, Ontario. He grew up there on the farm, but his lungs were damaged by a bad bout of whooping cough when he was a child, so farm work was too difficult for him. His first job was working in the local store, Taylor=s Store in Dromore. As a young man he went West and immediately got a job in a department store in Winnipeg where he worked until early in 1916, March 16th, when he enlisted in the 11th Reserve Battalion. He was 22 years old, five feet, nine and a half inches tall, with blue eyes, fair hair and a fair complexion; quite a handsome and slender young man, as the proud portrait in uniform that he sent to his parents shows. His battalion left for England at the end of October, 1916, arriving at Shorncliffe on November 11th. How prophetic! At the end of November he was transferred to the 27th Battalion Overseas and two days later they arrived in France, to the indescribable misery of the trenches below Vimy Ridge. Just imagine the shock that the stench, the mud, the vermin, and the mounds of garbage that outlined the trenches would have been to these young men from the clean countryside of Canada. He was gassed for the first time just twenty days later. Shortly after that there was a second gas attack and he got it again. He was first treated in the field and then transferred to Cannes. Later he was transferred back to England, eventually to the Canadian Casualty Assembly Centre at Shoreham-on-Sea near Hastings, then to the Canadian Convalescent Hospital at Uxbridge, finally arriving at Canadian Reserve Cavalry Hospital in Buxton. He spent the next two years in and out of the Red Cross Hospital in Buxton, alternating between military duty and hospital stays. He fell in love with one of the nurses there in Buxton, and they were married in April 1918 but his lungs never recovered. He died in hospital in Buxton on January 2nd, 1919. The army recorded it as >Struck off the strength (having died)=. That young Canadian, one of the thousands who never made it home again, was William Milne, my husband=s uncle. He is buried in the middle of a row of well-tended Canadian graves, there in the peaceful English countryside just outside Buxton. The quiet fertile fields, the cattle, the low hills in the distance and the small wood lot that you can see from the cemetery are very similar to the view from the cemetery at Dromore, where he is commemorated on his parent=s tombstone behind Amos Presbyterian Church. His name also is engraved on the War Memorial in Holstein, Ontario. So, Honourable Senators, when you next visit a cemetery look for a row of uniform military gravestones embossed with the maple leaf. Pause for a moment and consider the dates on them. Think of the other victims of Vimy Ridge whose names do not appear on those stately memorials in towns and cities across this great country but who, through their sacrifice, also helped to create our country. Remember. +++++++++++++++ Here is the thing: there are many more like Uncle Willie. And they are not on the memorial either.
Posted on: Fri, 14 Nov 2014 00:13:26 +0000
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