Victoria Park Cenotaph
The research work on Milton Soldiers was started by Richard Laughton in 2005, in the form of a Web Blog (http://miltonsoldiers.blogspot.com), developed as part of a national program to honour community soldiers in the Great War. The basic structure was updated as part of the 2007 Remembrance Project for the Victoria Park Cenotaph, to include details of the units where the soldiers served and died, as well as the battles they fought. Updates will be posted to the milton soldiers blog, linked above.
Haltonville Cenotaph
Following Remembrance Day 2011 the Milton Soldier’s web site took a significant step forward, to start work on the addition of Milton’s Soldiers from the Second World War (WWII 1939-1945) to the site.
As 2012 commemorated 200 years since the War of 1812, the site was once again expanded to add the Milton Soldiers that could be traced back to that conflict. A number of local grave sites were identified and some soldier’s stories extracted. In order to keep the Remembrance Projects alive, work was also completed to add the Milton stories from the South African War (Boer War 1899-1902); the Korean Conflict (1950-1953) and the Korean Peace Keeping Mission (1953-1957).
The information that is available for the men and women of Milton in the World Wars varies considerably and this is reflected in the level of information presented in the sub-directories for WWI and WWII. The Milton Historical Society (MHS) has published two books on these conflicts, which you will find on this web site here: Milton Remembers WWI 1914-1919 Milton Remembers WWII 1939-1945 In addition to covering those “lost in action or died of wounds“, the publications covered many of those “that served“.
Legion Cairn, Evergreen Cemetery
Prior to the Second World War (WWII) there was no reference to the First World War (WWI) as there was no knowledge that there would be a second great conflict in the century. Historically, the First World War (WWI) is known as “The Great War” of 1914-1919. To be considered a “Casualty of War” by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission” (CWGC), the man or woman would have had to have died with the specified time period. There are cases in Milton where the soldier was wounded in the war, was treated in Europe and back in Canada, but did not recover and died of his or her wounds.
Despite pleadings from many groups, the CWGC has not (nor will they ever) accept those men and women as official war casualties. The dates are as follows:
- WWI: August 4, 1914 – August 31, 1921
- WWI: September 3, 1939 – December 31, 1947
Errors on the Milton Cenotaphs are reported under Cenotaph Errors.
