Canadian Virtual War Memorial

Photo of JOHN RILEY MILNE – Submitted for the project Operation Picture Me

Grave marker – Submitted for the project Operation Picture Me

Grave marker – Submitted for the project Operation Picture Me

Correspondence – Submitted for the project Operation Picture Me

Discharge certificate – Submitted for the project Operation Picture Me

Photo of John Riley Milne – This photograph and an accompanying article appeared in The Globe And Mail newspaper on Tuesday, 11 November 2003. The touching article, called "He was the world to someone", was written by Jonathan Vance. Circa 1973, when he was a young boy, Vance found this unidentified photograph in the bottom of a box of old books at a church rummage sale; he paid $0.10 for it. Subsequently, a letter to the editor appeared in the same newspaper identifying the young airman in the picture as being John Riley Milne. It was from his sister, Joan (Milne) Brett who was living in Morris Island, Nova Scotia, at that time. She wrote that her brother had been flying a Hurricane in a low-level training exercise in Bagotville, Quebec, when he had been killed.