By Major John Stephens, CD (Ret’d), Museum Director and Archivist

Today, sixty-one serving soldiers of The Queen’s Own Rifles plus various members of the Regimental Family are participating in a pilgrimage to Normandy, France in honour of the 80th Anniversary of D-Day and the sixty-one QOR soldiers killed on D-Day, 6 June 1944.

I had the privilege of sponsoring Corporal Eric Filmer on this trip and together we remember B66008 Rifleman Albert Edward Hildreth who was killed in action on D-Day aged 23. You can read more about Rfn Hildreth on his museum profile. We each received a coin engraved with his name on the reverse.

In an email yesterday Cpl Filmer shared some thoughts about the trip so far:

“The past few days have been tremendously moving to hear about, and visit the places where our soldiers made the ultimate sacrifice. What really brings it home are the people from the towns that we liberated. Canadians, specifically the QOR, are at home in many of these places. The children have been taught the importance of what happened here, and it has been made a part of their lives Our history has been tonight to them in school, and hearing them sing the Canadian national anthem, and seeing their excitement has been very heartwarming.”

Today they are marching from the landing at Juno Beach (with some stops in other villages along the way) to the Village of Anisy which was the QOR’s final objective on D-Day.

Yesterday they attended a service in Le Mesnil Patry where the battle of the town cost 50 QOR deaths – the second most in a single day of the war. The pictures above and below are from that remembrance.