Vollett, Douglas

Cpl. Douglas Vollett, son of Mrs. Viola Vollett, Harrisburg, was born in Hamilton on January 25, 1923. He moved with his family to Harrisburg, where he went to school, attended the village church and Sunday School, and played hockey in the Junior League. Then war came and Douglas, in his 18th year, enlisted on September 14, 1940. Then his destiny changed from that of one of Canada's farmer sons to that of a soldier who would travel far, first across his own country to the Pacific Coast, then to Jamaica, B.W.I., and finally with his regiment, the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders (P.L.) across the battle-torn fields of Western Europe until October 23, 1944, when he was killed while in action against the enemy. Then, after he was buried at Kapellenbosh, Holland, near Antwerp, with 20 other Canadians, he became a symbol to the people of that tranquil little place. Expression of this may be found in a tribute written by a Flemish newspaper editor, which reads in part: "Twenty-one Canadian soldiers rest here, united in their last sleep. They are lying, side by side under those simple white-painted crosses, a squadron of death, once a squadron of beautiful and young life. Loving hands have strewn flowers over their graves. Here they lie forever, at the foot of this small chapel with its high and narrow little spire soldiers of peace and therefore ever dear to us. You have come to free yourselves and us from tyranny and terror which were menacing humanity. And it is not your fault that you had to come with rifle and sword, nor is it our fault that you lie dead in our earth, you who have become our brothers, you toward whom our hearts cry out in warm pity. Canadian soldier, we would like to go to your mother and tell her: 'Mother of Canada, your son is one of ours. Your boy will sleep without further care. If we ever forget him, we would forget ourselves'."

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