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L'Association des anciens
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Son of a Mounted Policeman - Statue for D-Day Piper Bill Millin
The following is being posted for the information and attention of anyone who may know any particulars of the fact that William (Bill) MILLIN's father who served in the RCMP. RCMP Archives and History documents so far have been unable to identify anyone with the surname MILLIN who may have have served with Force.
Supplementary update on the last. It would appear that Bill’s father’s first name was John. And he very well may have been known as ‘MacMillin’ or some variation on a theme of that sirname. Having checked with our Historian, Sophie Chevalier-Forget, it appears that many/most records of the RNWMP were bulk-destroyed sometime during the 1930’s so Force records dating back to that period are, to say the least incomplete. On the original email i sent there was an adobe file of a scanned newspaper interview that Millin gave in France, referencing his father, with a photo inset of 3 rather rustic-looking lads: 2 in period uniform on either side of John (Mac)Millin |
Forwarded by A/Commr. Graham MUIR:
Please find attached a message from one our our "A " Div pipers, Alain Marion. It may take a moment to work through the attachments, but its worth your while. Please disseminate to members of your respective bands. The installation of the statue in honour of a great Canadian piper is certainly worthy of our collective attention and support. And please do pass this along to others in our extended family of police and military pipe bands.
Given the direct connection to the Force, I think it would be worth the while to disseminate to our various Vets Associations, Regina in particular. I'll follow up with our Force Historian this week to see what we can do about identifying the Bill Millin's father from "F" Division.
Graham Muir
From: Alain MARION [mailto:alainmarion@rogers.com]
Sent: October-27-10 6:04 PM
Subject: Re: Project of a Statue for D-Day Piper Bill Millin
Bonjour à tous et à toutes,
As I mentioned last night at the end of band practice, a group of Piping and History enthusiasts from France are currently involved in a project to erect a life-size statue of Bill Millin (1922-2010) who, shortly after landing on the shores of Normandy on June 6, 1944, played his bagpipes while under enemy fire.
The son of Scottish immigrants, Millin was born in Regina, Saskatchewan. He and his family lived for a few years in Canada before moving back to Scotland in the mid 1920s. While many of you had likely heard of or read about Piper Bill before, the fact that his father had served with the RCMP might be news to some (see attached newspaper excerpt).
The project of a statue for Piper Bill was initiated by the Piping Committee and Bill Millin Association (http://ddaypiperbillmillin.over-blog.com/ ). This non-for-profit organization collects funds in order to pay for the monument, and it is based in the City Hall of Colleville-Montgomery in Normandy. The model of Piper Bills statue can be seen at the following page of the above Web site ( http://ddaypiperbillmillin.over-blog.com/30-index.html ). The full-scale bronze is scheduled to be unveiled in June of 2011 during the Pipefest Normandy celebrations, at the exact spot of Sword Beach where Scottish soldiers landed on D-Day.
A friend of mine, PM Yves Tison, and Mr. Serge Athénour, the chairman of the D-Day Piper Bill Millin Committee, have asked me if I could help them get in touch with Canadian Pipe Bands and Piping Organizations in order to (1) inform them about the project, and (2) seek their support. The purpose of this message is therefore twofold:
1- To invite you to support this initiative by making a small donation
2- To request your assistance for a larger diffusion of this information to other police, military, and civilian pipe bands in Canada and in the USA, and to other groups and individuals you feel might be likely supporters of this project.
Donations can be made through PayPal (http://www.paypal.co.uk/uk ) using the following email address: ddaypiper44@hotmail.fr , or by sending a cheque payable to the Piping Committee and Bill Millin Association (Mairie, 3 Grande rue, 14880 COLLEVILLE-MONTGOMERY FRANCE).
I have attached to this email a short MS Word file that I prepared and which can be sent as a general piece of information regarding the project, as well as a few pictures and images that show Bill Millin in action, provide an overview of his achievements, and show the projected artwork.
I do not believe there are many life-size statues of pipers erected around the world… Therefore, I feel this particular initiative is worthwhile for both present and future generations not only as a portrayal of someone playing the bagpipes, but more importantly as a symbol linking our music to the accomplishments and the sacrifices made by the thousand of men and women who were directly involved in the events of June 6, 1944.
Please do not hesitate to contact me if you should have any questions, or need additional information regarding this project. Thank you in advance for your help.
Alain MARION
Please contact Graham MUIR (grahammuir@rogers.com) or Alain MARION (alainmarion@rogers.com) at the indicated email address if you should be able to shed light on the search for Bill MILLIN's father.