There are three (3) known errors, excluding etching or unit name errors, on the Cenotaphs that are located in the Town of Milton.

• Mary Paterson, Victoria Park Cenotaph
• Daniel Dixon, Victoria Park Cenotaph
• Wesley Roberts, Haltonville Cenotaph

Although not an error in terms of correct names on the cenotaphs, the name of J. F, Smilie, a casualty of the Korean Conflict, mistakenly appears on the list of WWII soldiers on the Victoria Park Cenotaph. His name also appears correctly under a separate listing for Korea, albeit on the WWI panel.

The images of the Victoria Park Cenotaph show the errors noted above.

Smillie, Paterson and Dixon Errors

Smillie Listed for Korea on WWI Panel

Mary Paterson Error

This is the most serious of all of the cenotaph errors detected during the Milton Soldiers research program. The complete text of the research report on the issue of Mary Paterson whose name appears under the list of WWII soldiers killed after the Great War can be downloaded from these links:

• Mary Paterson Cenotaph Error – original report (17.6 MB)
• Mary Paterson Cenotaph Error – B&W report (2.5 MB)

All of the soldiers shown on that panel of the Victoria Park Cenotaph are WWII soldiers, other than Smillie (Korea), Paterson (error) and Dixon (may be WWII Merchant Navy).

The evidence is conclusive, updated as late as October 2013, that Mary Paterson was in fact Mary McLachlan Blaikley of Gartcosh Scotland. She never served in the Canadian Forces nor did she reside in or visit the Town of Milton. Mary never left Scotland, or the battlefields of Europe, prior to her death. Her mother Elizabeth Blaikley did mary John Paterson, a WWI Milton Soldier – several years after the birth of Mary (an illegitimate child).

Nurse Mary Blaikley was a hero of the First World War and is correctly recognized for her service to King and Country on the Gartcosh Memorial. We have left a summary of Mary’s service during the war under the section of WWI Soldier Details.

Daniel Dixon Error

Dixon, D. (updated January 21, 2012) was an addition (time or reason unknown) to the Milton Victoria Park Cenotaph. The only record for a Canadian casualty in either WWI or WWII was Daniel Dixon (family from Barbados) who was a Utility Boy in the Canadian Merchant Navy. The CWGC and VWM report that he was on the S. S. Lady Hawkins out of Nova Scotia and was killed on January 19, 1942. The link to Milton is not known at this time.

Wesley Roberts

Private Wesley Roberts is listed on the Haltonville Cenotaph as a soldier of the First World War. An exhaustive search, on all major databases in Canada and Europe, for Wesley Roberts did not return any results. There is a possibility (research not conclusive) that the name may have been reversed and he is Robert Wesley.

Haltonville Cenotaph