Pictured is the engraving on the north side of the monument at the Cenotaph in Millbrook which includes the names of A.E. Shaw and B. Fisher.
The following short histories of several local WWI veterans are based on an article by Scott Dummit of Cavan Monaghan that was original published in a Toy Soldier Magazine, now out of print.
Alfred Earnest Shaw was born in Millbrook on November 21st, 1881.
His military experience began with the 3rd Dragoons, a militia cavalry unit located in Peterborough. From there he transferred into the North West Mount Police (the predecessor of the RCMP) and moved to western Canada. From there he transferred to join one of Canada’s permanent force cavalry regiments, the Lord Strathcona’s Horse. When WWI began, he initially commanded the 6th Canadian Mounted Rifles, but as various units amalgamated overseas, Shaw joined the 1st Canadian Mounted Riles, which commanded shortly after.
On June 2nd 1916, the 3rd Canadian Division was severely attacked at Mount Sorrel in Ypres, where his group was subjected to one of the most severe sustained enemy artillery bombardments of the war. Despite their fierce resistance, the unit’s defensive positions were overtaken by the enemy, and the Lieutenant Colonel Shaw was last seen with Major Fred Palmer, organizing what remained of their battalions to make a last stand. The Battle for Mount Sorrel raged for nearly two more weeks and although the Canadians eventually retook the area, many men, including Lieutenant Colonel Shaw, were never found. It was assumed he had been taken prisoner, but eventually it was learned that he had been killed. While there is no grave marking his resting place, his name is etched into the monument at the cenotaph in Millbrook
Lieutenant Bruce Fitzgerald Fisher was an aspiring young lawyer from Cavan, who had graduated from Osgoode Hall Law School.
With only a year practicing law, he decided to enlist in the army and was commissioned as a Lieutenant in April 1916, where he joined the 30th Battalion, 8 Brigade, Canadian Field Artillery. After serving over two years, Fisher was killed inaction in August, 1918 at the Battle of Amiens, and his body is interned at the Hangard Communal Cemetery extension in France. The artillery was the senior unit in the Canadian Army, having been established before Canada’s first regular army infantry regiment.
Charles Hugh McCusker was born in Massachusetts but was working as a farmhand in the Millbrook area when the war broke out in 1914.
At the age of eighteen, Charles enlisted in the Canadian Army in January 1916 and served at first with the 136th Battalion and then the 87th Battalion, also known as the Canadian Grenadier Guards. He was killed in action and is buried at the Vimy Memorial, Pas de Calais, in France.
Norman Henry Rodgers lived in Fraserville, and at the age of twenty-six he enlisted in Port Hope in January 1916.
He served with the 136th Battalion which was based in Kingston. Upon arrival in England that fall, his group was absorbed into the 39th Battalion under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel R.W. Smart. He survived and returned home at the end of the war.
Alma Florence Finnie was a trained nurse from Bailieboro who volunteered in the war eff ort by becoming a Nursing Sister in the Canadian Army Medical Corps.
This group had served the military during the North West Rebellion and the Boer War, but a significant turnout to this group had a big impact on the war efforts. During the five years of hostilities, 2,854 women joined this Canadian group, with others serving other forces. Due to their training, they held the rank of Lieu-tenant but were called “nursing sisters” because some of their earliest members belonged to various religious orders. They were also referred to as “bluebirds” because of their uniforms, which consisted of blue dresses, white aprons and sheer white veils. The majority of Canada’s Nursing Sister contingent served overseas in military hospitals, and casualty clearing stations in France, Belgium, Greece, Malta and the Eastern Mediterranean. This career was very dangerous, but Alma managed to survive the war, married and resettled in British Columbia. Her great nephew, Murray Thompson, still lives in the area. Alma’s uniform is featured in a display in the National War Museum in Ottawa.
Private George Frederick McKnight was born in Millbrook in October 1896 to John and Emma McKnight.
He was conscripted into the army on November 17th 1917 in Peterborough and was assigned to the 1st Depot Battalion, Eastern Ontario Regiment. It is unclear if he saw action during the war but he returned home due to pneumonia and died at home on the last day of the war, November 11, 1918 and is buried in Grace Presbyterian Cemetery in Millbrook.