Centreville Presbyterian Church in South Monaghan is the keeper of Millbrook Grace Presbyterian Church’s War Veterans’ Honour Roll. To commemorate Canada’s 150th birthday, Centreville embarked on a reproduction project for these documents. The originals, beautifully hand-written in India ink, are now in new frames and protected with anti-glare, UV-rated glass.
We are reproducing these Honour Rolls as some soldiers were missed, even after identifying several “Barnardo Home” boys who were old enough to sign up. We would like to fill in some of the missing WWI information. For example on the list are Pte. Arthur Lock- wounded, Cpl. H Calle- wounded, Pte. George Johnston and Pte. R. Russell, and having their service numbers or dates of enlisting would be helpful. Robin David Russell resides in Grace Presbyterian cemetery but there seems to be no way to clarify if he was Pte. R. Russell.
WWII records are protected. Families may search records but the church does not have permission to do so. Commonwealth War Grave records helped identify T. Armstrong as Alexander Thomas, Navigator, 405 Squadron RCAF, KIA, buried at Auneau Communal Cemetery, Eure-et-Loir, France. Surely seventeen other soldiers should be honoured with their rank and branch of service- ie air force, infantry, Mechanical Engineer, Navy, etc.
If you agree, and your surname is Armstrong, Belch, Blair, Kerr, Larmer, Lancashire, Thorndyke, Peers, Pallister, Bothwell, Thorn or Dr. J.W. Wright, please call the St. Giles/ Centreville church office at 705-741-1883 any Tuesday through Friday morning.
This year, Centreville Church School placed flags on returning soldiers’ graves at Remembrance and Canada Day events. Let’s find more for them to remember!
By Holly Hall
