City records 1st deaths from D-Day
EDITOR’S NOTE: In recognition of Canada’s 150th anniversary, The Herald is reprinting historic stories from the South Okanagan focusing on the biggest news story of each year.
JUNE 22, 1944 — The first Penticton boy to pay the supreme sacrifice for King and Country in the invasion of the Normandy beaches, so far reported to the Herald, is Trooper Donald Brock Hilliard, 21, who was killed in action on D day, June 6, 1944, according to information reaching his father here, W. Brock Hilliard, of the Herald staff.
Tpr. Hilliard was a member of the tank corps and was probably in the first wave of Canadian troops to storm the beaches.
Prior to his enlistment, he was a member of the Betts’ Electric staff here. In November 1942, he enlisted in the Canadian Active Army in Penticton and arrived in England in May 1943, and was attached to the Fort Garry Horse, now an armored formation.
Tpr. Hilliard was born at Huilcar, near Armstrong, in January 1923, and lived there until 1941 when he took up the electrical trade in Vernon. He came here in September, 1941, in the employ of Bett’s Electric.
His older brother, Tpr. Douglas Hilliard, enlisted at the same time and went overseas in June, 1943. He is now in a reconnaissance unit attached to the Third Canadian Division, which is also fighting in France.
This young Penticton soldier leaves, in addition to his father and brother, three sisters: Mrs. William Parker and Mrs. Robert Coldicott, of Armstrong and Mrs. Charles Hardwood of Vancouver. Cpl. H. Murfitt Dies Three
Days After Landings The second Penticton soldier to die in the invasion of France was probably Cpl. Herbert Arthur Murfitt, 37, nephew of William Murfitt, of Penticton, who was killed in action June 9, just three days after D day.
According to information reaching his uncle here, Cpl. Murfitt was serving as an instructor up to a short time before his death.
Cpl. Murfitt, who had lived at his uncle’s home here at one time, had worked at the Summerland Box factory before his enlistment in the Seaforth Highlanders in the fall of 1939 at the outbreak of war. He went overseas with the First division. However, he did not go to Italy with his regiment but remained in England on instructional duties.
His father, Charles William Murfitt, resides in Bakersfield, Calif., where the family went from England. Cpl. Murfitt came to Penticton about 14 years ago and was well known both here and in Summerland. He was an ardent hunter and fisherman. He was single.
Surviving are his father, one brother, Arthur Murfitt, of London, England; four uncles, William Henry Murfitt, of Penticton; Fred, Sidney, and Harry Murfitt, of London, England; and two aunts, Mrs. Edith Batterham, and Mrs. Chrissie Uphill, both in the Old Country.