Milton’s Commemorative Gold Watches – A
Mystery from the Past
Authored by: Richard Laughton, February -
April 2011
At the end the Great War (The First World War of 1914-1918), the Town of
Milton honoured the Milton Soldiers (urban Milton) with commemorative
gold watches. There are records of this in the newspaper archives and
the council minutes of that era (1915-1919) and a number of us have
personally seen a few of the gold watches given to the soldiers (circa 2010/2011).
In 1989, Stewart Wolf tried
to solve the riddle of the gold watches – that is to determine the
names of the 99 men who received this coveted item (Milton Observer of March 22, 1989). The Town of Milton (Gord
Krantz – Mayor) had assisted Mr. Wolf to the best of their
capability, but with no resolution (Mayor
Gord Krantz of April 29, 1988). To the best of my knowledge Stewart
Wolf was not successful, as there is no further mention of the project
in any of the historical files.
Stewart, a member of Branch #136 of the Royal Canadian Legion (Milton)
is survived by his wife Irene Wolf and son Brad Wolfe.
We do know now that more than
99 watches were issued - that was the number for the 1919 presentations.
In total from 1915 to 1922 there were 118 watches presented.
In February 2010, Milton
Legion member Ron Regan brought in his grandfather’s (Richard
Stephen Regan #57714) commemorative gold watch. In the process of
preparing a “Soldier Summary”
on Private Regan, the question of the origin of the Milton Gold Watch
became increasingly more interesting to the author. In January 2011,
Grandson Ron Regan offered his grandfather’s gold watch to the
community (Town, MHS, and/or
Legion) so that it could become an archive for all future Milton
residents to see first-hand. It seemed logical that the next step would
be to try and solve the puzzle of WHO
RECEIVED A WATCH? The original plan of Wolf was to have a plaque in
Town Hall listing the 99 men (now 118) who received a watch – which could now be
augmented with the placement of one or more of the original watches. We
now have watches for the plaque but we do not yet have the names of the
recipients. In 2006 the Milton Historical Society reported:
“At the recognition of the returned men in 1919 the town presented 90
watches … alas we have found no published list of the recipients.”
The purpose of this review is
to provide documentation of what was available to prior researchers,
what is available now, and an analysis of the possible 118 candidates to
receive the watch. The ultimate goal was to arrive at an authoritative
list of the most likely candidates for those 118 positions. With
the existing watches and that list, a memorial to the Great War Soldiers
who received these mementos could finally be created.
PROJECT UPDATE: (as
of March 30, 2012
)
This is a work in progress and as of the date of
this posting the primary resolution of the mystery is complete - but it
will never end as we are continuing to receive more information about
"known watches". Since the first version of the report was
completed, we have received confirmation that two gold watches
(Ptolemy Family, Beasley Family) are in existence, however
we have not seen the watches. Watches to
those families have been recorded in the list of the 118 issued and they
have been added to Section 7 of the report.
As a result of the web site publication about this
project, we were contacted by a watch collector (Aaron Day) in the UK
(South Yorkshire) who had a MILTON GOLD WATCH and wanted to return it to
the project. That process was completed and the watch arrived in Milton
on October 25, 2011. The watch is a very special addition to the project
as it was the one issued to the family of Private Ernest Baverstock
(#142260) who died of wounds in France on October 1, 1916. This is the
only watch we have seen from the July 1, 1917 Dominion Day Ceremony in
Milton and the watch is distinctly different from the one issued to
Private Regan.
Here is the comparison of the two watches I have in
my possession: (they both keep excellent time although both are damaged)
On January 14, 2012 we received an e-mail from
Greg Melanson in Hamilton, Ontario that he was in possession of the Gold
Watch that was issued to Samuel Morley (#3110037), who after the war
had returned to Milton. All that remains of the watch is the outer case
and winding post. The watch is of the "Regan" style, as shown
in the photograph. Details on the origin of the watch and how it reached
Greg are detailed in the updated report now posted to the web site. At
the time of the initial posting I did not realize we had achieved a
"Triple Bonus" with the finding of the Morley
watch. In the process of updating the main report it quickly became
clear that Samuel Morley had an older bother (William Alexander) and a
cousin (William James) who also are now known to have met the residence
qualification for a gold watch. All three were listed in the report as
"MP: Most Probable", a fact now confirmed.
|
Front Face:
Missing
Case:
Regan style
Rear Cover Case Inscriptions:
unknown at this time
Rear Body Inscription:
To
S. Morley
from
Town of Milton
Great War
1914-19
|
 |
The final report is complete but remains open for
updates. I would not only welcome - but appreciate - input
from anyone who wished to review, comment on, or critique this report.
Since the completion of the initial report a new SECTION 7 has been
added for PROJECT UPDATES. In that section there will be updates on the
watches that are located (currently Ptolemy, Beasley and now
Baverstock).
In previous versions of this web page, a listing of
the changes to the report and spreadsheet were document for the benefit
of those tracking the progress of the research. In total, there were
nine (9) versions of the spreadsheet analysis, which highlighted the
approach to arriving at the 118 soldiers names. Those versions have now
been removed, but are available on request. A draft final PDF
version of the report, with a significantly reduced file size can now be
viewed on-line at ISSUU or downloaded from the MHS web site. A separate
version of the EXCEL spreadsheet is also available, as it is difficult
to read the PDF version. I will update these on-line reports as new
information is added.
Watch images are also depicted on Halton Images (Halinet): Image
1; Image 2;
Image 3
The story of the GOLD WATCHES was published as the
front page story of the Milton Champion for Remembrance Day 2011. A copy
of the on-line version of the story (prior to final copy) is located
here:
http://tinyurl.com/miltonchampionstory
and
a PDF version of the newspaper story can be downloaded from the MHS
site:
Watch-ing
Mystery Come to Light
As always, I welcome the input of fellow members of
the Milton Historical Society, the Royal Canadian Legion, and the
members of the public that may have additional information. If you can
confirm that a soldier did receive a gold watch, or alternatively that
they never qualified for a gold watch - PLEASE let me know. In the end I
may arrive at "the most likely list of candidates" but
I doubt that it will ever be perfect.
