{"id":12549,"date":"2015-11-11T18:08:13","date_gmt":"2015-11-11T23:08:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=12549"},"modified":"2015-11-18T12:41:34","modified_gmt":"2015-11-18T17:41:34","slug":"brocks-banter-tough-as-old-boots","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/brocks-banter-tough-as-old-boots\/","title":{"rendered":"BROCK’S BANTER: Tough as old boots"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Brock Weir<\/strong><\/p>\n

When I walked into his Aurora apartment last year, my eyes were immediately drawn to John Wilkes\u2019 feet. Comfortably ensconced in his wheelchair, he still let his feet do the work, helping him move along the floor of his condo with ease and precision.
\nThese were not slippers used to padding along cushy carpets. These were old boots that had done their fair share of heavy lifting; comfortably broken in, battered, more than a little bruised, and visibly repaired more than once.
\nHe simply didn\u2019t see the need to replace his shoes very often. They did what they were supposed to, they got him from point A to point B. He wasn\u2019t there to make a fashion statement; he was just there to get the job done. In fact, he had worn the same style of footwear since the Second World War, only seeing the need to order a new pair once or twice.
\nEvidently, they built things tougher back then. And that goes for both man and boot.
\nAfter meeting Mr. Wilkes several times over the years at various events around Aurora, I finally had the chance to sit down for an in-depth conversation with him early in the spring of 2014. It was the lead-up to the Duke of York\u2019s visit to Aurora (or close enough) and he was one of a handful of veterans slated to have the opportunity to meet the Queen\u2019s second son.
\nAs a long-time monarchist, he was tickled pink to have the opportunity to meet Prince Andrew, but the excitement didn\u2019t just stem from the fact the Duke of York was the son of the sovereign, both men had something else in common: their education at Lakefield College near Peterborough.
\nAs I discovered in our conversation, Mr. Wilkes received his education there in the late 1930s before heading off to University. It was at University when the Second World War got in the way.
\nWith a father who served as a major in the First World War and a grandfather who served with the Royal Winnipeg Rifles during the Northwest Rebellion in the second half of the 19th century, young Wilkes didn\u2019t hesitate to follow the lead of his forebears into battle, but he didn\u2019t exactly leap at the opportunity either.
\n\u201cJoining up was the only thing to do. To avoid joining the Forces was something I never thought of,\u201d he recalled \u201cI wasn\u2019t so anxious that I did it at 17 or lied about my age or anything, but I signed up when I was 19 and the artillery regiment was being formed. It sounded like a good place to go.
\n \u201cWe were in the 23rd Field Regiment SP (Self Propelled) RCA and we made part of the Fourth Armoured Division and there we supported the tank regiments. Our guns were on tracks so we could go anywhere the tanks went. We supported them and my job was to sit in a 10 foot hole about 30 feet behind the guns with an artillery board and calculate the line of the range. You got coordinates back from the forward observation officer, so I would plug those in and get the line in range.\u201d
\nHaving been enlightened by his story last spring, there was a degree of added poignancy meeting up with him at the Legion reception following last year\u2019s Remembrance services. There he was, once again, lined up with those comrades and, yes, still wearing those tattered leather boots.
\nDespite the wear and tear of time, both kept step moving forward. This past Sunday, however, Mr. Wilkes was not among the ever-shrinking band of local veterans enjoying the late autumn sunshine at this year\u2019s Remembrance Day parade.
\nThose boots almost seemed like a metaphor for the man: despite the wear and tear of time, they too would keep moving forward.
\nLeather met the road one last time on October 7 when Mr. Wilkes died at the age of 93, survived by his children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren and their families. Outside of his family, his legacy includes Aurora students who, over the years, were enthralled with his story.
\nYou might think his statement, \u201cI just thought it sounded like a good place to go, so that is where I went,\u201d was a bit blas\u00e9 but I chalk that up to his generation. They didn\u2019t think they were doing anything particularly special, but we know otherwise.
\n\u201cIn 1945, we chased the last Germans across the Rhine in the Spring and we went to celebrate a little bit \u2013 so we celebrated!\u201d he said. \u201c\u201cThe next morning, our Troop Sergeant Major said he thought his hangover was worse than mine, so he asked me to ride his motorcycle. Going along the road next to the Rhine, I noticed that our Signal Sergeant caught some barbed wire and was dragging it along. I thought
\nI would do a good turn and put my foot down and the only trouble was putting my foot down, the barbed wire left his, caught in my back wheel, and I had to stop and get rid of the damned thing.
\n\u201cThat put me behind the Regiment, so I was zooming along trying to catch up, and a shell came across, landed in the ditch, and a piece went through and took half my tibia.\u201d
\nLess than 36 hours later, he was back in England. Several operations later, he was back in Canada and still ready to serve.
\nAs his boots carried him through what was ultimately his final year, he confided he was just beginning to appreciate the, well, appreciation others had for his service, recalling a couple of weeks before we met up at his condo that his grandson, who happened to be a teacher, shared with his class a few notes his grandfather had prepared about his service.
\n\u201cHe was reading it about halfway through and asked his students if they wanted any more, and they all shouted yes!\u201d said Mr. Wilkes, with a twinkle in his eye, before resuming his matter-of-fact way of speaking. \u201cSo, on he went. There is some interest.\u201d
\nAfter the war, his service continued as a key engineer with the Ministry of Transportation, helping to develop Ontario\u2019s networks of King\u2019s Highways. His fascination with military and military history also led to him being an instrumental figure in the establishment of the Canadian Heraldic Authority, the official body designing official heraldic symbols for Canadians independent of the United Kingdom, as well as the Canadian Royal Heritage Trust.
\nHe was awarded the Queen\u2019s Golden Jubilee Medal in 2002 for his service and, 10 years later, the Queen\u2019s Diamond Jubilee Medal, his name now on the official plaque at Queen\u2019s Diamond Jubilee Park unveiled by Prince Andrew on that spring afternoon last year that was so memorable for Mr. Wilkes.
\nSome interest indeed, and we can all be thankful people like Mr. Wilkes took the time to share the stories to pass the torch, and perhaps some of the sturdiness embodied in his footwear, onto future generations.
\nGodspeed, John, and to everyone who served.<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Brock Weir When I walked into his Aurora apartment last year, my eyes were immediately drawn to John Wilkes\u2019 feet. Comfortably ensconced in his wheelchair, he still let his feet do the work, helping him move along the floor of his condo with ease and precision. These were not slippers used to padding along […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12549","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archive"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-3gp","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-11 15:22:15","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12549","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12549"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12549\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12549"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12549"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12549"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}