The Brocks team tied for 5th overall of 11 teams in our first attempt attending the Glengarry Highland Games Highlanders Challenge Cup congratulations to the team:
Cpl thompson (team captain), RSM Gagnon (coach), Captain Lampron, Sgt hopper, MCpl Jackson, Cpl Parker, Cpl Springer, Cpl Zieman (anchor), Cpl Oliver, Rfmn Boyd, Cpl Jowett.
Two retired officers of The Brockville Rifles, LCol Jeff Shaver (Ret’d) and Major Roger Hum (Ret’d), received Canada 150 Medals. The Canada 150 medals were presented for community service and to recognize their efforts supporting the community. The Canada 150 Medals are an initiative of MP Gord Brown and MPP Steve Clark.
My father, Leonard S. Quinn, (I always called him “Daddy”), was born in May 1907 and my mom Flora (MacNamara) Quinn, was born in July 1906. They were born and brought up in the Lyn area where they met and married in October 1932 and moved into the Village of Lyn.
They had three daughters, Beverly in 1933, Barbara in 1935 and Joan in 1937.
Daddy was a farmhand for several farmers in the area and worked for Simpson’s Sand and Gravel Shipping, hauling such from Wellesley Island in the St. Lawrence River to the mainland at Johnstown near Prescott, Ontario where the large grey structure still stands. He acquired a government job with the Dept. of Highways and was working on the rock cut at Rockport, Ontario, west of Brockville, Ontario for Highway #2, when the War broke out in September 1939. The construction of Hwy #2 ceased during the war years to allow money for war supplies etc.
When the Second World War was declared in the Fall of 1939, I was four and a half years old. My Dad was helping to build Highway #2 in the Brockville and Mallorytown area at the time, but his job ended immediately when the War broke out. Since work was hard to find and men were needed for service, Dad joined the Army with the Stormont, Dundas & Glengarry Highlanders. He trained in Kingston, Ontario and Truro, Nova Scotia before going overseas in April 1940. We didn’t see Daddy again for five years, “Snail Mail” was our only means of communication.
My Mother and two sisters spent the next 5 years coping with no Dad and many difficult times. Mom nursed us through all the Communicable Diseases and several surgeries, one which nearly claimed my life. At seven years old, I was stricken with Acute Appendicitis and required surgery immediately. I developed double pneumonia, went into a coma and was not expected to make it. They cabled overseas to tell my Dad, only to find he was in hospital with pneumonia, having just had a Mastoid operation. They never did tell him how ill I was, until he was well.
I remember the doctor coming to the house to witness the Ration Books being burned in the kitchen stove, after my sister and I had Scarlet Fever. Only then could we get new books issued. Of course we were quarantined for all those diseases then.
We lived for the days we’d receive a note or letter from “Overseas” with “Dear Wife and Kiddie” in it! We wrote many, many letters over the next five years and always begging him to come home. Same reply, “I’ll be home as soon as I can get there!”
My two sisters and I learned how to make “War Cake” early on. I still make it today and when you go by our door and smell cinnamon and cloves, I’m more than likely making War Cake*. We kept Daddy supplied with this cake because it keeps well and when he emptied his Kit Bag when he arrived home, there in the bottom was a small piece wrapped tightly in waxed paper along with a bent picture of his “Dear Wife and Kiddies”.
Read more are: http://www.lynmuseum.ca/2017/10/02/leonard-quinn-world-war-ii-veteran/
te. Harry W. Brown, a Gananoque native, was one of six Canadian soldiers to be awarded a Victoria Cross for their acts of heroism during the Battle of Hill 70, northwest of Lens, France, in August 1917.
The Victoria Cross is the highest military honour awarded to members of the Commonwealth forces “for extraordinary valour and devotion to duty while facing a hostile force.”
He was awarded the Victoria Cross, posthumously, for his actions.
The newly opened Hill 70 Memorial — the creation of a group of Kingstonians — features a walkway with imprints of maple leaves representing each of the 1,877 Canadian soldiers, including Brown, who died during the battle.
Brown, who was born May 11, 1898, in Gananoque, was delivering a message on a piece of paper on Aug. 16, 1917, when he was wounded. He died the next day at the age of 19.
His actions are commemorated at the cenotaph at the town park in Gananoque.
After Brown’s father died, the family moved to Emily Township, northwest of Peterborough, in 1908. He was working at a munitions factory in London, Ont., when, at age 18 he enlisted for the First World War on Aug. 18, 1916.
He served as a messenger with the 10th Battalion at Hill 70.
His Victoria Cross citation reads: “For most conspicuous bravery, courage and devotion to duty. After the capture of a position, the enemy massed in force and counter-attacked. The situation became very critical, all wires being cut. It was of the utmost importance to get word back to Headquarters. This soldier and one other were given the message with orders to deliver the same at all costs. The other messenger was killed. Private Brown had his arm shattered but continued on through an intense barrage until he arrived at the close support lines and found an officer. He was so spent that he fell down the dug-out steps, but retained consciousness long enough to hand over his message, saying ‘Important message.’ He then became unconscious and died in the dressing station a few hours later. His devotion to duty was of the highest possible degree imaginable, and his successful delivery of the message undoubtedly saved the loss of the position for the time and prevented many casualties.”