Having the name appear on the cenotaph does not make the soldier an automatic candidate for a gold watch, in fact it was a secondary screening criteria used only after a soldier had been determined to meet the primary minimum qualifications to be a watch recipient. For example, Alfred Bastedo – the leader of many of the 1914 and 1915 recruits due to his association with the 20th Halton Rifles, is listed on the Milton Cenotaph but was not a candidate for a gold watch. Although the Bastedo family lived in town, Bastedo was not a current resident of Milton – rather it appeared he was a resident of Toronto attending the University of Toronto. Had Bastedo qualified for a watch, the family would have received it at the July 1917 Dominion Day presentations, but they did not.
5.4 Returning Soldiers or the Ultimate Sacrifice Whether or not a soldier that paid the ultimate sacrifice and was thus killed in service, became one of the most complex issues of the 2011 classification process. To be included in this category, the spreadsheet identified if the soldier was killed in action, killed in service, died of wounds, or died of illness. The differentiation of killed in action versus killed in service has importance in determining if the person was serving overseas versus one that never left Canada. A clear example of this, although not a Milton man, is the only soldier buried in the Nassagaweya United Church Cemetery. There lies Private James Lachlan Kingsbury, a poor lad that was tragically killed while in training at Camp Borden. A criteria for receiving a gold watch was that the person served overseas, which may primarily apply to France and Belgium, but could also include England, Africa, Siberia, Greece, etc. Several of the men died of wounds that were the direct result of service in the Great War. In that list we can include:
John Hasting Blair OL o Listed on the Haltonville Cenotaph o Born in Campbellville, parents home and grave site in Guelph o Wounded in battle, ambulance in an accident, pneumonia and death in Canada Harold James Dent OL o Not listed on any local cenotaphs o Born in Michigan, lived in Saskatchewan, family from Milton o Buried in Milton Evergreen Cemetery Albert Edwards OL o Listed on the Victoria Park Cenotaph o Memorial Service at Grace Anglican Church o Died of pneumonia in England after suffering a chest wound in battle in Flanders Alfred James Evans MP o Listed on the Victoria Park Cenotaph o Wounded during Canada’s “Final Hundred Days” during the closing days of the war o Eventually died of his wounds in Canada in June 1925
Milton’s Gold Watches – A Mystery from the Past, by Richard Laughton, April 2011
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