The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

24 - The Oakville Beaver Weekend, Saturday November 10, 2007 www.oakvillebeaver.com Halton's heroes: their sacrifices gave us freedom By Don Ford SPECIAL TO THE BEAVER Sacrifice. It's a word that will resonate with many that attend this week's Remembrance Day (Nov. 11) services. For Canadians too young to have lived through the First World War (1914-18), Second World War (1939-45) or the Korean War (1950-53) the concept of forfeiting one's life for country remains abstract. For young men like William Tuck, Charles McLaren, Frederick Elkington and Gordon Langford, joining Canada's war effort was something they did out of their love of country. As Canada has gone to war, thousands of Halton men have contributed to her effort. They have found themselves on ships heading far from home and burdened by some of the most unbearable conditions human beings have endured. Many of them died to preserve freedom. Their names are inscribed on Halton cenotaphs and monuments to ensure we never forget. The hundreds from Halton whose sacrifices for the greater good are part of our nation's proud history understood the words of Second World War Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King who said: "We must also go out and meet the enemy before he reaches our shores. We must defeat him before he attacks us, before our cities are laid to waste." We remember these soldiers, their bravery, sense of duty and willingness to sacrifice for our sake. ··· Lieutenant James Ernest Robertson (Milton - died March 9, 1916): According to Milton Historical Society records, Robertson was one of the few Milton soldiers born in the community. He graduated from the University of Toronto with degrees in Political Science and Law. He was practicing law with the Winnipeg Supply & Fuel Company when he attested to the 90th Infantry Battalion (Winnipeg Rifles) on July 20, 1915. He took that draft to England and was then transferred to the 11th Battalion. The 27th Battalion (2nd Division, 6th Infantry Brigade) subsequently took him on strength on December 21, 1915. He was among the Canadian soldiers who spent the first winter of the war in the trenches of Flanders. The Canadians saw 546 killed and 1,543 wounded in the James Robertson first three months. The war diary of the 27th Battalion March 8-9, 1916 details Robertson's demise. He was directing trench repairs when he was struck in the head by a sniper's bullet and died instantly. He was 35. The son of Milton's Duncan and Helen Robertson is buried in Loker (Locre) Churchyard Cemetery, south east of Ypres, Belgium. ··· Captain William Sinclair Tuck (Oakville - died Oct. 30, 1916): Born and educated in Oakville, Tuck was the only son of J.C. Tuck, superintendent of the Anthes Foundry Company and a nephew of former Mayor of Oakville William Sinclair Davis. Tuck soared up through the ranks after enlisting as a private with the 4th Artillery Brigade. According to a Nov. 6, 1916 Toronto Star account of his death: "He went overseas in May, 1915, with the second contingent. While training at the Exhibition Camp, he was appointed bombardier. Shortly after reaching England, he was made a corporal, and when he went to France he was made a sergeant major. In January last he received his commission as a lieutenant and was attached to one of the trench mortar brigades. For over a year he had been in the front line trenches, first at the Ypres salient, and later more recently at the Somme. "In a recent letter home he said he had been promoted to his captaincy. Hockey loses one of its best players in the death of Capt. Tuck. He was also promiWilliam Tuck nent in all branches of outdoor sport." ··· Lieutenant Eric Grahame Rowley (Burlington - died July 6, 1917): Rowley, the 23-year-old son of Agnes and the late Charles Rowley is buried in Warloy-Baillion Communal Cemetery Extension in Somme, France. He suffered an accidental death while conducting a test flight. An Aug. 1, 1917 report in the Burlington Gazette read: "Word has been received here that Lieut. E. G. Rowley had been killed in France. Lieut. Rowley, who was well known in the district, enlisted at London, Ont., and went overseas about 10 months ago. He joined the Royal Flying Corps, and was sent over to France. He was an expert pilot. He was testing out a new machine, and when up in the air some 15,000 feet, something went wrong with the engine and the machine crashed to the ground, and was wrecked to pieces. Lieut. Rowley was killed instantly." ··· Private Frederick Elkington (Acton - died Oct. 26, 1917): Fred Elkington was born May 10, 1884 in Manchester, England but eventually immigrated to Canada. According to enlistment papers he completed in Toronto on Jan. 25, 1916. A 1911 census showed he lived and worked as a farmer and cement worker in the Acton area. He initially enlisted in the 169th Overseas Battalion, but his death was attributed to action at Passchendaele when he was 34 years old and a private in the 58th Battalion, Canadian Infantry (Central Ontario Regiment). Although Elkington has no known place of burial, his name is recorded on the Ypres Menin Gate Memorial on Panel 18-2426-30. The Menin Gate Memorial bears the names of 55,000 men who were lost without trace during the defence of the Ypres Salient in the First World War. Carved in stone above the central arch are the words: To the armies of the British Empire who stood here from 1914 to 1918 and to those of their dead who have no known grave. Over staircases leading from the main Hall is the inscription: Here are recorded name of officers and men who fell in Ypres Salient but to whom the fortune of war denied the known and honoured burial given to their comrades in death. The dead there are remembered to this day in a simple ceremony that takes place every evening at 8 p.m. All traffic through the gateway in either direction is halted, and two buglers (on special occasions four) move to the centre of the Hall and sound the Last Post. Two silver trumpets for use in the ceremony are a gift to the Ypres Last Post Committee by an officer of the Royal Canadian Artillery, who served with the 10th Battery, in Ypres in April 1915. (Sources: CEF 58th Battalion Members, Who Died Overseas; Veteran Affairs Canada) ··· Sergeant Hubert Frank Tost (Georgetown - died June 15, 1942): Bert Tost, son of Georgetown's William and Florence Tost, was 32 when he died in Europe, while serving with the Royal Hamilton Light Infantry during the Second World War. He is buried in Brookwood Military Cemetery in Surrey, UK in an area of an existing cemetery set aside in 1917 for the burial of men and women of the forces of the Commonwealth and Americans, who had died, many of battle wounds, in the London district. The burial site was further extended to accommodate allied casualties of the Second World War and some German and Italian plots where prisoners of war are buried. ··· Gunner Gordon Walter Langford (Burlington - died Aug. 15, 1944): Prior to the war, Gordon and his brother Harold joined the Militia. In 1941 the boys enlisted in the 102nd Battery, 8th Canadian Light Anti-Aircraft Regiment. The Regiment left England for France on July 26, 1944. By the middle of August the city of Caen had fallen and the 3rd Canadian Division was advancing against very stubborn resist- ance from the 12th SS Division. On Aug. 14, 805 Bomber Command aircraft attacked seven German troop positions facing the Canadian troops. Some of the bombs fell on the Canadians. From the Regimental History: "A tremendous pillar of smoke and flame shot up. Other Lancasters, seeing the conflagration, added their contribution. Endlessly they came pounding away ... at the men and supplies which were to support the forward troops." That night the men took shelter in their slit trenches. It was the daily lot of the soldier to dig a slit every time the Regiment moved, a slit long enough for his body and deep enough for him to be below ground level, thus protected from shrapnel. Every night, wet or dry, fully clothed, the soldier tried to sleep. David Hall, another Burlington boy in the same regiment, remembered the events of Aug. 14-15, 1944: "The troops were dug in for the night and a few German aircraft came over and dropped anti-personnel bombs. Jock Gordon Langford Harrow, yet another Burlingtonian from the regiment, recalled that Gordon and another soldier used to put their truck over their slit trenches for added protection. A bomb destroyed the truck and the two soldiers were killed instantly. Gordon Langford, 31, had been in France just 20 days. (From Burlington Central High School's Book of Remembrance, June 1998) ··· Flight Lieutenant Robert Nelson Perdue (Oakville - died Dec. 24, 1944): Perdue was a pilot with the RCAF 622 Squadron who was killed in action the day before Christmas in 1944. He was 26. He was initially buried in Grevenbroich, Germany, exhumed, and reburied in the Reichswald Forest War Cemetery in Germany. He was the son of Gordon and Jennie Perdue and husband of Luci Perdue. His sacrifice is commemorated on the Oakville Trafalgar High School 1939-1945 Honour Roll. (Sources - Veteran Affairs Canada, Oakville Museum) ··· Flight Sergeant Charles Peter McLaren (Campbellville - died June 21, 1945): McLaren was among the crew of KN 563 of 435 Squadron, a RCAF plane that was declared missing over Burma on June 21, 1945. The 20-year-old Halton resident and his missing crewmates represented four distinct regions of Canada. They included McLaren, William Rogers of Halifax, N.S., William Kyle of Perth, Ont., David Cameron of Oshawa, Stanley Cox of Beresford, Man. and Cornelius Kopp of Duchess, Alta. Their C-47 Dakota had departed from Tulihal, India on the morning of June 21, 1945 to drop supplies to the British 14th Army at Myitkyina in Burma approximately 250 miles away. The plane never returned. Robert Perdue In 1990, a local hunter reported finding aircraft wreckage in the northwest section of Myanmar, having retrieved a watch inscribed with Kyle's name. However, it wasn't until late 1996 that the Government of the Union of Myanmar (Burma) reported that wreckage of an aircraft, marked KN 563, had been found in the jungle of northwestern part of the country. A Canadian reconnaissance/recovery team arrived in Rangoon to work with Myanmar officials to recover the long missing crew members. In early March of 1997, the six Canadian Second World War airmen were laid to rest with full military honours at the Commonwealth War Grave Commission's Taukkyan War Cemetery near Yangon, Myanmar. Family representatives of the six crew members -- among them McLaren's sister Elinor Brown -- attended the funeral ceremony. "Today, we mark the final stop on a Charles McLaren journey that started a lifetime ago, when the lives of these six young men were taken -- and given -- in service to their country," said Secretary of State (Veterans) Lawrence MacAulay during the funeral service. "From cities and towns across Canada, these six young men Bert Tost, front right, was a member of the 1927-28 Harris Cup-winning found themselves together at a moment in time that ended their hockey team from Georgetown. Tost later went on to join the Royal lives and forever changed those of family and friends thousands Hamilton Light Infantry in the Second World War. He was killed in 1942 of miles away; every mother's son, every father's pride and joy, a and is buried in a military cemetery in Surrey, UK. hero to a brother or sister. Now they were gone forever."