Creature Comforters
Written by Nancy Payne â Posted June 28, 2021
From prime ministers to army privates, people of all ranks and stations adore their animal companions. Pets and working beasts have inspired acts of compassion, conservation, and sometimes even artistic greatness. Furred, feathered, or fetlocked, here are a few animals that have pawed, prowled, and pranced their way into Canadian history.
Donald E. Bent Family
WARHORSES
Roughly one out of every ten horses the Allies used in the First World War came from Canada about 130,000 in all. The Toronto Police Force’s mounted unit sent eighteen, of which only Bunny, a strawberry roan that saw action at Vimy Ridge, survived. Although the city offered to pay Bunny’s way home after the war, the military decided that only officers’ horses would be returned, and he was sold to the Belgian government. The only Canadian Member of Parliament to die in the war, Lieutenant-Colonel George Harold Baker, also had
A WAR medal dug up in a garden and returned to the owner s family has uncovered a mystery. Earlier this year the Adver reported on the search to find the grandson of Sgt Frank Titchener of the Wiltshire Regiment after heating engineer Martin Hilyer found what was thought to be the First World War soldier s medal. Also called Frank, he was eventually found with the help of a cousin, John Mackman. But after the inscribed medal was handed over Frank said he believed it actually belonged to his uncle Bert and that his grandad s medals must have been shared between his sons, Frank and Bert.
Frank Titchener (far left) with brothers Edgar, Harry and Percy, sister Hilda and mother Mary Deborah Titchener The search is on to find the grandson of a man whose First World War medal was unearthed in a garden in Moredon. Heating engineer Martin Hilyer was digging in his garden in Elborough Road when he came across the medal and posted a photo on Facebook. Helpful commenters helped trace the inscription on the back to Sgt Frank Titchener of the Wiltshire Regiment, 1st Bttn. Martin said: “I was digging in my back garden and it turned up, amazing really because I had dug there before. I was amazed. I couldn’t believe it.