We Will Remember Them: Profiles of our Veterans

Starting in 2023, the Advocate has dedicated a portion of its November issue to profiles of those from our community who served in the major conflicts that shaped much of the last century.

From witnessing the horrors of increasingly-mechanized warfare that reshaped Europe from 1914 through 1918, to participating in the massive efforts to support Canada and the allied countries between 1939 and 1945, people from what is now Kawartha Lakes “did their bit” and sacrificed much – including their lives – in the cause of freedom and justice.

Canadians’ memories of war have over the years generated monuments and poetry, pilgrimages and oral history. Some of these stories have been told and retold by family down through the years; others have faded from public memory and are immortalized only in brass plaques in churches, on local war memorials, or in the faded pages of newspapers.

This year, the Advocate highlights the service of four individuals – three young men and one young woman who hailed from this part of the world and made their mark in a variety of capacities in a distant land so scarred by the atrocities of war. We will remember them.

If you know of a veteran whom you would like to have highlighted in the November 2025 edition of this annual feature, please write to .

Private Lewis Lennie

Those who survived the two world wars would carry forth the torch of remembrance in the decades following 1918 and 1945, respectively. Their recollections preserved the memories of friends and family who were prematurely cut down on the fields of France, Belgium, and other theatres of war. One of those who did not come home was a young man by the name of Lewis Lennie. Born in Lindsay in 1896, Lennie signed up for service on Feb. 20, 1915. (Years later, one of Lewis Lennie’s descendants told a local clergyman a story about her uncle leaving the Lindsay Armoury for a good night out on the town with friends – only to face discipline in the form of being marched along Kent Street in shackles en route to the railway station from where he and his comrades would depart for France.) On July 14, 1916, Private Lewis Lennie was killed in action when a vehicle in which he was travelling through a Belgian community was obliterated by shellfire. He was not quite 19 years old.

Lieutenant Olive Williamson

Pedestrians strolling past 3 Melbourne Street in Lindsay in the early 1960s may well have seen an elderly lady out front collecting her mail or visiting with neighbours. They might also have known that, less than half a century before, this lady found herself in a military hospital across the Atlantic Ocean caring for those who had been badly injured in body, mind, and spirit. Her name was Olive Williamson, and she was one of some 3,000 women who enlisted in the Canadian Army Medical Corps during the First World War. Born in 1894, Olive had yet to mark her 22nd birthday when she graduated from the Ross Memorial Hospital’s school of nursing in June of 1916. A year later, she was stationed at the Ontario Military Hospital in Orpington, England, where many thousands of wounded servicemen came under her care. After leaving military nursing in 1920, Olive worked as a private nurse in Lindsay and Ops Township. She later entered Victoria Manor and died there on May 25, 1970, aged 75.

Gunner Richard Hilyer

Those who were born between 1901 and 1927 are often known as the “greatest generation,” and when the time came were of the right age to be called up in service to King and country. Richard “Dick” Hilyer was one such example. Born in 1918, Dick joined the army in 1942, travelling to Lindsay from Somerville Township with his brother, James Albert Hilyer to formally enlist. He was 24 years old, while James was not quite 19. Within a few months, the brothers found themselves in Petawawa, Ontario, where they would acquire the specialized skills necessary for serving in the 6th Canadian Anti-Tank Regiment, a division of the Royal Canadian Artillery. May of 1943 saw the Hilyers travel to Nova Scotia; by August of that year they were bound for England aboard the RMS Queen Mary, then serving as troopship. After spending some time on leave in Scotland (where he would meet his future wife, Isa), Dick undertook additional preparations ahead of the coming invasion of Normandy. He landed in France on July 9, 1944, and from there saw service in Belgium. He returned to Canada aboard the Queen Elizabeth in December of 1945. Dick Hilyer died in 2008, aged 90.

Flying Officer John Nugent

While Dick Hilyer was moving through Europe on terra firma, John Nugent had a unique perspective from the sky. Born in 1920 and raised in Lindsay, John had signed up for service in 1940 not long after graduating from high school. He joined the British Royal Air Force, and underwent basic training in Summerside, Prince Edward Island, before shipping out to Bournemouth, England, in September of 1941. In the late spring of 1942, the plane John was piloting over the Netherlands was hit by a German flare, causing a midair fire and requiring the evacuation of the crew via parachute. Upon landing, the plane’s rear gunner died of injury on impact, while the navigator and wireless operator were promptly captured. John Nugent, his co-pilot, and front gunner managed to escape; while the co-pilot eventually disappeared, John and his sole remaining crewmate would spend 17 days walking across Holland, evading escape themselves. Alas, they were captured in mid-June of 1942 and would spend the next three years in prisoner-of-war camps. John recalled that they were treated humanely, though he and his fellow prisoners-of-war were always contemplating escape. They were finally freed on May 10, 1945. John married 14 days later and returned to Canada with his bride. For many years, John worked as a pharmacist in Dunnville, Ontario, where he died in 2002.