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Woman from Sidney donates her father’s WW1 medal to Seaforth Highlanders

Grace Madill with her father's WW1 medals.

A Vancouver Island woman’s wish has finally been fulfilled.

81-year-old Grace Madill of Sidney gifted her father’s Distinguished Conduct Medal for outstanding bravery in action during World War One to the Seaforth Highlanders during a ceremony in Vancouver yesterday.

Her father, Sgt. Maj. Hilton Soles enlisted with the Seaforth Highlanders in Victoria back in 1915 and ended up being awarded the honour three times, the only Canadian ever to do so.

Madill decided to donate the medals because she wanted them “to go back where they belonged.”

“I wanted to do it for a long time,” she said a day after the ceremony. “My grand-kids and great grand-kids, it’s not going to mean as much to them. You can’t imagine the excitement when we told [the Seaforth Highlanders] what we had.”
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“It was really neat when we were leaving. The young cadets were coming and thanking me for coming and giving the medals to them.”

The medal was the second highest award for valour given, just below the Victoria Cross.

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