Private John Alexander McMillan
745428
Born 1896 Beaverton, ON
Lived in Beaverton, ON
Killed in Action – Aug 24, 1917 Hill 70
Buried at Aix-Noulette Communal Cemetery, France
Situated on the eastern shores of Lake Simcoe, lies a jewel of a town. In my youth, I used to travel there with my parents as it had one of the only grocery stores that was relatively close to my family cottage. It also had a laundromat. This was essential as it allowed up to make it through our two-week vacation without having to continue to wear clothing stained with mustard, ketchup and other hot dog accoutrements or smeared with the obligatory detritus of worm guts. The town is Beaverton, Ontario. Today, a little less than 3000 people live in and around the town. Like many small towns in cottage country the population often surges in the summer and is reduced to virtually nothing in the winter. At the time of the war, the town would have included approximately 1000 people, 3 churches and 7 Officers serving in the 116th Battalion. (my apologies, I forgot the Old Stone Church which was constructed in 1840 from a pile of old stones.)
As much as the fact that a small town could boast about having 7 officers serving in one battalion, there are darker numbers from the town that should be considered. One number is 38. This is the number of men from Beaverton and Thorold Township who put down their tools, enlisted, travelled over seas, fought and died in the service of their country, community and King. Their names are forever listed on the town cenotaph located outside the town hall. 12 of these 38 soldiers were original enlistees with the 116th Battalion. They were included in the group of 79 local area chaps who attended the recruiting office in Beaverton in March of 1916 and enlisted to fight. One of these men was a 19 yr old man named John Alexander McMillan.
John was a local boy. Born in Beaverton, he was the son of Duncan McMillan, the town carriage maker. One can imagine that, as the younger boy of the modern-day equivalent of their town car mechanic, he knew and was known by all those in town. He was an average young gent, listing his height at 5 ft 7 with brown hair and brown eyes. Upon joining the battalion, he first enjoyed the fine hospitality of the regimental health care services as he fell ill to measles at Camp Niagara. Immediately upon release, he jumped aboard the train enroute to Halifax and joined the men as they departed for England aboard the SS Olympic. Once in England he spent the next nine months training with the men, however was delayed in departing for France with the rest of the 116th. He joined them five days before the great attack on Vimy Ridge.
John, along with most of the battalion, survived Vimy unscathed. However, within the following month he did come down with a nasty case of impetigo. For those without Goggle or tend to avoid looking up disgusting things on the interest, let me describe the condition for you. Picture a healthy young lad…fit, fresh faced, healthy as a horse…now look at the guy beside him with yellow, crusty scabby sores on his face, hands and legs. You would be looking at poor John Alexander. This was a highly contagious condition which was quite common in the close quarters and confines of the trenches and underground bunkers. One may, as I do quite often, is look at this situation from a glass half-full perspective. At least the for the now 20 yr old boy, not even the madames who plied their ancient trade in the maisons tolerees would touch the youngster, thus saving him from a vicious bout with VD too.
After Vimy, the 116th proceeded to patrol the now quiet sector of the front from May to early July. McMillan was recovering in hospital, during this rather dull period of the Battalion’s history and returned to the men in mid June. The first test of battle John would experience was going over the bags at Avion in the attack on the German trench systems at the Fosse 4 slag heap. Emerging unscathed once again, his luck would run out a month later as the 116th was tasked to assume the Chicory Trench network vacated by the 27th Canadian Battalion on Aug 22nd. This period would be known in Canada’s Great War history as the attack on Hill 70 at Lens.
On what the battalion diary described as a rather quiet day with the German’s laying off their incessant shell fire exercises, they eventually got bored of not shelling and resumed their pillory of the Canadian positions around dinner time, between 6:30 and 7:30 pm, followed by a second rather hostile bout of shelling between 10:00 and 11:00pm. It was during this time that the random reality of great war artillery exacted its’ rather inexact science. During that sorrowful evening, John Alexander McMillan was struck and killed. Without fanfare nor recognition, the battalion diary simply noted “Casualties 7 other ranks “Killed”.
Lest we forget