William Millin, better known as “Piper Bill”, was a Saskatchewan born soldier who played the bagpipes. At the tender age of 21 he was assigned as the personal piper to Simon Fraser, 15th Lord Lovat, commander of the British Special Service Brigade on D-Day.
Millin is best remembered for playing the pipes during the landing in Normandy in 1944. Perched perilously in the back of an amphibious landing vehicle he played “Highland Laddie”, “The Road to the Isles” and “All the Blue Bonnets Are Over the Border” as his comrades dodged German fire on Sword Beach. Millin, following orders, did not seek cover.
There were 23,000 casualties on D Day. Miraculously Bill Millin wasn’t one of them. He later reported talking to captured German snipers who claimed they didn’t shoot at him because they thought he had gone mad. Millin died in 2010.
Many young men and women volunteered to serve during World War 2, sometimes lying about their age to gain admission. Naïve to the hazards of war and stirred by duty, they left family and the comforts of home to defend a way of life and the values which defined it.
The consequences of their sacrifice were sometimes obvious, loss of life, limbs or function; and sometimes veiled…children raised without a parent or by parents who had been profoundly amended by the conflict. For children of the combatants, education was often sacrificed to the necessity for work to support a diminished household. Full time employment was then considered “hire” education.
In 1944 Canada valued hard work and dedication, achievement through commitment, advancement based on merit, respect for seniors and understanding history to avoid repeating its mistakes. Dishonesty, duplicity, deceitfulness, and deception were destructive; children were to be instructed accordingly.
Regrettably, the values that have characterized what it is to be Canadian are today susceptible to faddish tendencies. Largely unacquainted with military service and uninformed about those who sacrificed so much, we are witness to a collection of entitled and half informed protesters who have no understanding of personal sacrifice, no appreciation for the perils of the world subdued on their behalf by those who came before, who wish to revise but not understand, who never give a thought to who constructed the buildings in which they are educated or the roads that lead to them or the generations who paid taxes so all of their comforts could be offered up at a bargain price?
At public institutions across North America, students squat on public property and advocate editing the library, labelling all Caucasians as colonizers, shielding the podium from contrary viewpoints, insisting history be rewritten to suit modern sensitivities, demanding safe spaces, pillorying the energy sector, and redefining gender. Trained by the defective pedagogy of social media they have become instant experts on everything from the abolition of slavery to the politics of the Gaza Strip. Meanwhile, weak-kneed administrative collaborators, void of courage or conviction, are incapable of a useful reply.
In 1944, or even 2004, Canadians believed in civility, meritocracy, and equality of opportunity over equality of outcome. They believed in law and order and the judicious censure of those who sought to harm people or property. Citizens studied history knowing there were lessons to be learned; they respected the contribution of past generations and saw nobility in conscientious effort.
Canadians didn’t invent this value system. It was wisdom acquired from hard won experience of those who came before, insight then bequeathed to successive generations. Explorers, inventors, hunter-gatherers, Indigenous peoples wringing sustenance from a reluctant land and risk takers of every sort understood real life required dependable values, validated by an accumulation of knowledge.
World War 2 was fought to defend these values.
Its not that Canada couldn’t be improved in 1944. Intolerance was common, prejudice was endemic and important historical injustices were unacknowledged. Canada still had a law banning the Potlach and women were largely absent from the work force.
But the root of progress is understanding failings and anchoring the corrective course in resilient values. A country defined by a shifting landscape of standards falls victim to fads and fashion, values revised each time the mood changes.
History embodies the total of human experience, an archive of human progress. It is an indispensable guide on how to improve. An accurate understanding of the past is critical, all the folly, the errors, achievements, victories, the best and worst of choices made.
It has been said that if your life today is better than it might have been, you may look to those who came before, “those who labored thankless and in obscurity and lie now in unmarked graves”.
Bill Millin fought for those who labored thankless and in obscurity. Like many of his generation, he embraced traditional values and had a willingness to defend them. He and many of his generation did not shrink from responsibility; they did not curse the darkness…they lit a candle.
History lessons were won at great cost by all the Bill Millins who defended a great country committed to continuous improvement. For the 20-year-old toddlers on campus who don’t appreciate that, perhaps a history lesson is in order.