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November 6, 2025 • Volume 39, No. 13
Next edition November 20
L’édition de cette semaine à l’intérieur...
Honouring Cumberland’s citizen soldiers
The Cumberland Village cenotaph contains the names of seven local men who were killed after volunteering to serve in the First World War. FILE PHOTO
By Fred Sherwin The Orléans Star The former township of Cumberland has a long history of service to their country starting with the First World War when many young men left their family farms to join the Canadian Expeditionary Force. Most saw service in the Royal Canadian Artillery, where they were responsible for moving the heavy guns from position to position using teams of heavy draft horses such as Clydesdales and Percherons. Almost all of them would have experience working with the horses while doing plowing and other chores. In fact, a number of the local farms contributed some of their own horses to the war effort, never to see them again. All told, the Canadian Corps required over 23,000 horses during the duration of the war. Less than a dozen were returned to their owners, none of which were draft horses.
Twenty-four young men from Navan served in what became known as the Great War. Another 42 men joined from other parts of the township, including Cumberland Village, Vars and Bearbrook. A number of them never returned home. Charles McKenzie, Cheswell Allan, Robert Leslie Taylor, Peter McLaren, William Spratt, John McKenzie and Thomas Foy, all from the Cumberland Village area, were either killed in action or died from other causes related to having to live for weeks on end in mud-filled trenches. Thanks to Cumberland Village historian Jeannie Smith, we know a little bit about some of these men. Charles McKenzie came to Cumberland to work on the Canadian National Railway which had opened in 1909. CONTINUED ON PAGE 2