Wellington County pays homage to local war dead
County holds annual remembrance ceremony at museum and archives
ABOYNE – Legion members from across the county steeled themselves against the cold at the Wellington County Museum and Archives on Nov. 9 and recited aloud the names of the fallen ahead of Remembrance Day.
Each year, the county pays homage to the 502 people who paid the ultimate sacrifice in the First and Second World Wars, Korea, Afghanistan and in service to NATO.
Wellington Place administrator Jana Burns spoke to the gathering of county staff, politicians, Legion members and veterans about Private Archibald (Archie) Miller.
CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: Guelph Legion president Alan Miller salutes during the singing of O Canada; Wellington County Warden Chris White shares remarks; Arthur Legion member John Dalley reads aloud the names of the community’s war dead; a Legion remembrance poppy flag flaps in the wind; Chris Patterson plays the Last Post and Reveille; Legion members and others listen to the names of the county’s war dead read aloud; and Elora Legion member Lynn McClellan sings during the ceremony.
“Each year we are encouraged to select one military figure from Wellington County and honour that individual’s life,” Burns said.
Born in Alma on June 27, 1898, Miller grew up in Elora, where he worked as an upholsterer. He enlisted in 1916 at the age of 18.
Miller sailed from Halifax in 1917 and was stationed at Bramshott Military Camp in England. He was a private in the 153rd Battalion.
“I chose private Miller because it was my surname at birth and because I grew up in Elora,” Burns said.
“Private Miller’s service record humanizes him.”
The record notes a seven-day suspension for sleeping on duty, costing him seven days’ pay. The order, she said, provided “a small window into the exhaustion and strangeness of life far from home.”
Miller’s record also shows he was shot in the abdomen at Arras, France on Aug. 31, 1918, and died of his wounds six days later. He was 20 years old.
Jordan Snobelen
Burns said the soldier’s will was written in clear, careful cursive and witnessed by higher ranks.
“I pictured what that must have been like, for two presumably older men, to watch an 18-year-old draw a long, diagonal line striking out any possessions which to bequeath, and then to sign it,” Burns said.
The Elora Express newspaper, Burns said, described Miller as a “quiet, unassuming boy, but with the spirit of a true man.”
Miller’s name is etched into the right side of the Elora cenotaph.
Burns said people can honour the memory of those like him wherever they are with “respect and compassion, carrying forward his sacrifice and transforming remembrance into action.”
