Enduring Remembrance: An English Volunteer Keeps an RMR Soldier’s Memory Alive
Westmount, Quebec – 28 November 2025: As we move through 2025, one simple, steady act of kindness in a quiet English churchyard continues to remind the Royal Montreal Regiment’s greater family that our fallen are never truly alone. This is an update to the original story about ‘the kindness of strangers’ that highlights the importance and strength of inter-regimental bonds.
Back in October 2020, the RMR Museum received an unexpected email from Ms. Jill Scahill, a volunteer at St. John’s Parish in Upperthong, West Yorkshire. While tending the churchyard, she had noticed the headstone of a Canadian soldier: Private Clarence B. Denman of Montreal, Royal Montreal Regiment. Curious about the young man whose name she had been walking past, she reached out to learn more.
From London to Montreal to the RMR
Private Clarence B. Denman was born in London, England, in 1893 and emigrated to Canada with his family as a child. By August 1914 he was a 21-year-old salesman, living with his parents at 1836 Esplanade Avenue in Montreal. When war broke out, he answered the call and enlisted in the 14th Battalion (RMR), Canadian Expeditionary Force.
Denman fought with the Regiment in France and Flanders. During the Second Battle of Ypres in April 1915, he was wounded, and despite medical care he succumbed to his injuries on 26 May 1915, at only 22 years of age. He was laid to rest in the churchyard of St. John’s Parish, Upperthong, far from the streets of Montreal he once called home.
“The kindness of strangers”
For decades his grave sat quietly in that Yorkshire churchyard, like so many others. Jill decided that was not enough. She began by placing a plant on Private Denman’s grave and speaking to him during her regular visits, making sure someone from the living world was still “checking in” on him.
Her quiet gesture did not stay quiet for long. In November 2020, retired Corporal Stuart Kilminster of the Prince of Wales’s Own Regiment joined in the act of remembrance, laying a wreath on Private Denman’s grave and reciting the Act of Remembrance on behalf of all who served with the RMR.
In the years that followed, Jill took it upon herself to craft wreaths by hand for Denman’s grave each Remembrance period. What began as a simple act of tidying a grave became an enduring promise: that this young Montreal soldier would not be forgotten in the village where he fell to rest.
Regimental ties across time and distance
In 2023, the RMR Museum sent Jill a small parcel of regimental accessories so that the grave of Private Denman could be more clearly marked as that of an RMR soldier. Jill incorporated these items into her decorations, proudly displaying the Regiment’s identity at his resting place in Upperthong.
Over a century after his death, Private Denman now lies under a headstone that is regularly cared for and distinctly tied to his Regiment. The colours and symbols of the RMR, placed there by friends he never met, silently affirm that he still belongs to a regimental family stretching from Montreal to Yorkshire.
Why it still matters in 2025
For those of us in the RMR’s extended regimental family, Jill’s ongoing care for Private Denman is more than a touching human-interest story. It is a living example of what remembrance is supposed to be: personal, persistent, and rooted in gratitude rather than obligation.
Private Clarence B. Denman may have died in 1915, but because one English volunteer chose to pause, read his name, ask his story, and then act on it, his memory continues to be honoured with dignity and respect. In doing so, Jill also pays tribute to the 1,193 RMR soldiers who died in France and Flanders, and to all those of the Regiment who never came home.
On behalf of the RMR, we extend our heartfelt thanks to Ms. Jill Scahill and to everyone who has stood by Private Denman’s grave, laid a wreath, or simply taken a moment to remember him or any of the others of his 1,192 RMR comrades who never returned home.
Lest we forget and God bless Jill Scahill.
