Video Transcription
Irene McMullin, like so many Canadian parents who suffered, was forced to grieve the death of her son, Leonard, without closure, the body of her teenaged son lying in an overseas grave she could never afford to visit. A single mom, her only son had been killed in the trenches of France in May 1918.
Immediately after the Great War ended cities and towns across Canada debated how they should honour its fallen soldiers. In Sarnia, there were a number of different proposals including that of a more traditional monument--the proposal that Irene McMullin preferred. Late in November 1918 she penned a heartfelt letter
to the editor of the Canadian (Sarnia) Observer. The powerful words of a grieving mother no doubt resonated with others. Three years after the end of the Great War, the Sarnia Cenotaph Memorial was unveiled.
Leonard Calvin McMullin was born in Bradshaw, Lambton County, Ontario, on November 28, 1898, the only son of William and Irene McMullin.
Growing up in Sarnia, Leonard was an all-round athlete, a great reader and musician and a popular member and willing worker with Devine St. Methodist Church. At age seventeen, Leonard McMullin enlisted in the
Canadian Over-Seas Expeditionary Force on February 4, 1916 in Sarnia. He was a member of the Lambtons Own 149th Battallion. On March 28, 1917, Leonard embarked overseas from Halifax bound for the United Kingdom aboard the SS Lapland. He was then transferred to the 25th Reserve Battalion. Shortly after his arrival in England, Leonard wrote a letter to his mother Irene in Sarnia.
"Dearest Mama,
Just a line to let you know we arrived safe. We got into Liverpool about three...our ship had struck a mine in the bay outside the city and had a big hole put in the boat, but we got to the dock O.K. One fellow from the 244th Battalion, from Montreal was drowned and two hurt when the boat struck. It knocked me out of my bunk. We
arrived at Bramshott Camp this afternoon at 4 p.m. and are quarantined for ten days so as to be sure that no disease is brought over from dear old Canada. This place is very much like Camp Borden.
You might send me a cake and a pair of woolen mitts: the leather ones are cold.
Your boy,
Leonard"
Six months later, on May 25, 1918, Private Leonard McMullin lost his life in France--he was instantly killed in action by the concussion of a German trench mortar shell. Leonard McMullin, 19, is buried in Wailly Orchard Cemetery, France, Grave II.F.15. On his headstone are inscribed the words, THE ONLY SON OF HIS MOTHER HE LOVED HONOUR MORE THAN HE FEARED DEATH. On the Sarnia cenotaph, his name is inscribed as L.C. McMullin.
Six months after her son’s death, in late November 1918, Leonard’s mother Irene wrote a letter to the Canadian (Sarnia) Observer expressing her preference. She was one of thousands of Canadian families who were forced to grieve without a body, or without an expensive overseas visit to a grave. Many thousands were unable to
achieve the necessary closure so important to those who had never had a chance to say a proper goodbye. Following is Irene McMullin’s heartfelt letter:
Editor Canadian Observer
"Dear Sir,
May I speak for my boy? He is sleeping somewhere in France. I do want to tell you what I believe would
please him, could he but speak. For some years prior to enlisting in Lambton’s 149th, he had taken great
pleasure in the public library and the park surrounding it (Victoria Park) and since a memorial to the boys who will never return has been under discussion, my greatest comfort has seemed to centre there, and always I can picture to myself a monument of suitable design, bearing the names of all our city’s fallen heroes, their graves beyond the reach of loving hands to tend and care for, with no mark save a temporary wooden cross.
Reader, have you a boy sleeping over there? If so, does not the little white wooden cross seem a frail thing?
And many of our precious boys have not even that much. A granite monument would be a memorial which would withstand the elements for many generations to come and in that way would perpetuate their names as nothing else could. Also it would be something which the residents of our city and visitors as well, would
have cause to admire and revere.
The little white wooden crosses over there seem to send us the message “Do not forget us,” though only wrapped in a blanket, perhaps and buried khaki clad, in a soldier’s grave.
Thanking you, Mr. Editor for space and patience, I am Yours truly,
The Mother of One, Mrs. Irene McMullin"
In 1921, the Sarnia cenotaph was unveiled honouring the brave soldiers who had fallen for King and Country. Including Leonard McMullin.
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