The Huntsville Forester wrote an article on Lorne Main, WWII Veteran attached to the Toronto Scottish Regiment. Lorne is also an active member of the Burk's Falls & District Historical

He was 15 when he joined the militia and 18 when he went on active duty in 1944.

Like his peers, he was hoping to go overseas and see action, but he was never sent.

Throughout the Second World War Main was stationed all around Ontario.

They kicked me around all over the place, he said. I was even on the tank range at Meaford for awhile. It wasn't until after the war that he learned of an unspoken army policy that aimed to keep at least one family member safe on Canadian soil.

Main's two brothers and his sister were all in Europe, serving with the army and the air force by the time his turn came around.

They followed in the footsteps of his father Thomas Bennett Main, who fought with the Second Canadian Pioneer Battalion in the First World War and won the Military Medal for bravery. He fought in the infamous battle of Passchendaele in Belgium, a major engagement, lasting five months in 1917. While the staggering number of casualties remains the subject of debate, from July until Nov. 6, when Canadian troops took the ridge, the battle cost the lives of hundreds of thousands of soldiers on both sides. This, to take eight kilometres of mud and swampland.

Fortunately, at the end of the Second World War all the Main children made it home in one piece. We consider ourselves lucky for that, he said.

Main finally made it to Europe just this year when he joined fellow members of the Toronto Scottish Regiment to take part of the unveiling of a monument in the village of Meppel, Holland. The regiment was the first to liberate the village at the end of the Second World War.

The monument is black stone with the regimental crest emblazoned on it and is dedicated to the people of Meppel.

Main felt a real connection with the Dutch people on his visit.

The people wanted us there and they wanted our monument in their park, he said.

He is touched by the way schoolchildren in Holland are taught about the Canadian troops, their bravery and their sacrifice.

Its a fabulous thing, he said. There must have been a couple hundred of them and they all had red roses they laid at the foot of the monument.

When Main returned home to Burk's Falls he received a medal from the people of Holland that bears the words, Thank you Canada.

I'll be at the Huntsville Legion on Remembrance Day and I’ll be wearing it there, he said of the medal.

Main was born in East York but built a cottage with his father in Burk's Falls in the 1950s. He met his wife Marjorie at the end of the war and the couple moved to the area permanently in 1981. His daughter and three grandchildren still make use of the original cottage.

I've been a member of the legion for 65 years, said Main. Remembrance Day reminds you of all the people who didn't come back along with the ones who did. I had school chums who went over and never came back and that's one of the sad things of it.

Source: http://www.muskokaregion.com/news-story/3647111-thinking-of-those-who-didn-t-come-back