Tom Slater and Tom St. Amand
For nearly a century now the cenotaph has been the centrepiece of Veterans’ Park on Wellington Street.
But Sarnia might never have had the monument if not for a soldier’s death and a mother’s grief.
On the morning of May 25, 1918, Private Leonard McMullin, a 19-year-old from Sarnia, died in battle near Neuville, France.
Growing up on Vidal Street and later Davis Street, McMullin was just 17 when he enlisted, becoming a member of the 149th and, once overseas, a member of the Western Ontario Regiment, 18th Battalion.
He died six months later.
Mercifully, he didn’t suffer. When a German “fish tail” mortar dropped near his front-line trench Pte. McMullin died instantly. He is buried in Wally Orchard Cemetery, France.
It was Irene, Leonard’s mother, who suffered. Like thousands of Canadians, she grieved without closure, the body of her teenaged son lying in an overseas grave she could never afford to visit.
To cope with the loss of her only child she composed a poem entitled “Somewhere in France.” Two verses capture a mother’s love and sorrow.
Somewhere, a mother so lonely is waiting,
Craving good tidings from over the sea:
Praying ‘O God, should it be Thy good pleasure.
Send my darling in safety to me.’
Tho’ poppies may fade, or the lark’s wing grow weary.
Mother love—oh so boundless—no living, no end!
Sleep well, son! Dear Heart, we ne’er shall forget thee.
For thy life thou hast given, for country and friends.
And Irene McMullin wasn’t finished writing.
Immediately after the Great War ended Sarnians were debating how the city should honour its fallen soldiers. The proposals included the creation of some type of community memorial building or construction of a “Veteran’s home,” which would not only commemorate the fallen heroes but also allow returning veterans and their families to make use of a swimming pool and billiards room.
But others, including Irene McMullin, wanted a more traditional monument.
Late in November of 1918 she penned a heartfelt letter to the editor of the Canadian Observer.
Beginning with the words, “May I speak for my boy? He is sleeping somewhere in France,” she spoke of how, before enlisting, her son had taken great pleasure in the public library and the park surrounding it. She could now picture in the park a monument of “suitable design, bearing the names of all our city’s fallen heroes.”
After all, she argued, the graves of the city’s fallen heroes were far beyond the reach “of our loving hands . . . with no mark save a temporary wooden cross.”
Sarnia and Canada were prosperous, she wrote in closing, and could well afford to give our beloved dead a separate memorial. What better than a granite monument that would stand the test of time?
The powerful words of a grieving mother must have resonated with others.
On Monday, Nov. 7, 1921, the Sarnia Cenotaph Memorial was officially unveiled.
We can only wonder what Irene McMullin, now living on Samuel Street, must have felt to see her only son’s name inscribed on a monument that has withstood the test of time.