On June 16th, 1945 Major Mary Minor Mills, R.C.A.M.C was awarded the Royal Red Cross Medal by King George VI at a ceremony at Buckingham Palace. Major Mills has a unique and special connection to Medicine Hat and Southeastern Alberta and Southwestern Saskatchewan and her story is a story worth telling as it forms another interesting chapter in the history of Medicine Hat.
A recent genealogical discovery is worthy of being documented as I found that a distant relative in WWI was awarded the rare Victoria Cross for gallantry and bravery. As we approach November 11th, and honour those who paid the ultimate sacrifice for love of country, his story is worth sharing as we discover one of the many “real” moral tragedies of war. LEST WE FORGET
This is the second of a series of articles in relation to the St Margaret’s Church “Living” Memorial Project. READ ON
As an amateur genealogist and historian, I have been recently involved in several interesting research projects. I have written extensively regarding my family history (Anhorn/Medlicott/McIvor) and in doing so, I have endeavored, whenever possible, to put the story in some … Continue reading
Following the research, writing and posting on my personal homepage an article on a local Medicine Hat “character” entitled, “Lost in the Shadows-The Untold Story Of Phoebe Munro of Medicine Hat”, I received a phone call from someone mentioned in … Continue reading
A recent post on the Facebook page ”If you grew up in Medicine Hat you remember when” caught my attention. Quite interestingly, the photo and accompanying post garnered a great deal of interest from the Facebook followers of the site, … Continue reading
Fact or Fiction: The Relationship of the Scott Family of Medicine Hat to the Famous Explorer Captain James Cook At the request of my good friend Gary Scott and consistent with my unabated enthusiasm for genealogical research, I began to … Continue reading
The Discovery of a Long Lost Relative-The Untold Story of Alfred Borth One of the fascinating aspects of being an amateur genealogist and one of things for which we all aspire is to find or locate a long lost relative … Continue reading
The Story of a Fallen Soldier from WW1 and Why is important to remember them?
I have always being interested in the study of history and in particular the history of WWI. This keen interest in one of the darkest times in world history was no doubt inspired by my research into the family history of my wife’s family-Medlicott, when during the course of looking through some old photographs, I found pictures of her grandfather and great uncle, who were members of the Canadian Expeditionary Force and who both served gallantly in the Great War. Unlike so many others, they both returned home from the war.
More recently, I had occasion to travel to travel to France and Belgium and to visit such historic WWI sites as Vimy Ridge, Passchendaele, Hill 60 and Ypres. Only in visiting such places does one fully appreciate the full nature and extent of the carnage and the terrible loss of life that occurred as so many young men who heeded the patriotic call and paid paid the ultimate sacrifice. This is a simple but compelling story of a fallen soldier from WW1 and a story which was far too often repeated in the towns and villages throughout the British Empire as the Great War raged on. Read On
