On May 24, 1944, Canadian soldiers fought to cross the Melfa River in Italy. Among the men killed that day was a 26-year-old from British Columbia named Walter McKenzie Drummond. Three years earlier, he had enlisted here in Vernon.
Watkin Motors opened in Vernon in 1915, during the First World War, and our dealership lived through both world wars. This Remembrance Day, we made a short documentary to tell one Vernon story, and to remember all of them.
Watch: The Soldier Who Enlisted in Vernon
A town at war
Vernon knew war long before Walter was born. Over the course of the First World War, about 710 men from Vernon enlisted: more than one in five people in town. On the hill above Vernon, as many as 7,000 soldiers camped and trained.
Our dealership opened in 1915, the first full year of that war. Our founder, Joe Watkin, tried to enlist. He later wrote that two doctors turned him down for flat feet, and he suspected another reason: they wanted to keep someone in Vernon who could keep the cars running.
Vernon goes to war again
In 1939, Canada entered another world war, and thousands of soldiers came back to train in Vernon. At nearby Coldstream Ranch, Canada opened its first battle drill school.
Service took many forms. The Greater Vernon Museum & Archives tells the story of Rosalind Hodgson, who trained in vehicle repair, paid her own way overseas and drove army vehicles in Britain.
That same war touched our own story, too. Jack Blankley was born in Vernon in 1917, the same year as Walter. He spent three years in the army and later became the Ford dealer at Watkin Motors.
Walter
Walter McKenzie Drummond was born in Craigellachie, B.C., in July 1917. In May 1941, he enlisted in Vernon. He served with the Westminster Regiment, a motor regiment: infantry that travelled in trucks. By the spring of 1944, the regiment was fighting in Italy.
On May 24, 1944, Canadian forces fought for a crossing of the Melfa River in Italy’s Liri Valley. The British Columbia Dragoons, a regiment with roots in Vernon, went into their first action that day. The Westminster Regiment was there too.
Private Walter McKenzie Drummond was killed that day. He was 26.
Born July 18, 1917, Craigellachie, B.C.
Enlisted in Vernon, May 19, 1941
The Westminster Regiment (Motor)
Died May 24, 1944, Italy, age 26
Buried at Cassino War Cemetery, Italy
Husband of Muriel
Walter is buried at Cassino War Cemetery in Italy, far from the town where he enlisted. He never lived to see the war end. He left behind his wife, Muriel. His name is written in Canada’s Second World War Book of Remembrance.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning, we will remember them.Laurence Binyon, “For the Fallen” (1914)
Watkin Motors was closed on Remembrance Day. To every veteran, every family who lost someone, and everyone who serves today: thank you.
Lest we forget.
Learn more
- Walter McKenzie Drummond on the Canadian Virtual War Memorial
- Vernon Serves, Greater Vernon Museum & Archives
- 111 years in Vernon: the story of Joe Watkin and Watkin Motors
Sources: Veterans Affairs Canada (Canadian Virtual War Memorial and Books of Remembrance); Commonwealth War Graves Commission; Greater Vernon Museum & Archives; Okanagan Military Museum; J.H. Watkin’s “Life Story” (The Dealers’ Digest, c. 1961); The Morning Star, March 20, 1992. Photos as credited.