1961 National Memorial (Silver) Cross Mother – Sylvia Kimmel

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National Memorial (Silver) Cross Mother Sylvia Kimmel.
(Photo: Mission Community Archives)

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(Photo: Mission Community Archives)

Mrs. Sylvia Kimmel of Mission, British Columbia, was the 1961 National Memorial (Silver) Cross Mother. During the national Remembrance Day ceremony in Ottawa on November 11, 1961, she laid a wreath at the base of the National War Memorial on behalf of all mothers who have lost a child in military service to Canada.

On June 8, 1944, her son, Rifleman Gordon Leroy Kimmel, was killed while serving with the Royal Winnipeg Rifles.

Just ten days later, June 18, 1944, a second son, Corporal Richard Kenneth Kimmel, was killed while on duty, serving with the Regina Rifle Regiment on June 18, 1944.

On December 5, 1944, a third son, Corporal Clifford Howard Kimmel, was killed in the line of duty while serving with the Hastings and Prince Edward Regiment.

She lost three of her sons to the line of duty during Second World War. Five of her eleven children were in the Armed Forces. Her three deceased sons joined up within a month of each other in 1940 and all were killed within a six month period in 1944.

The weather was very cold when Mrs. Kimmel arrived in Ottawa in November 1961 in preparation of her duties as National Memorial (Silver) Cross mother. When she and her husband went to the department store, Eaton’s, to purchase a warmer coat, the store manager, upon discovering that she was the Silver Cross Mother and did not have a proper coat for the weather, allowed Mrs. Kimmel to choose one to her liking--a warm, black mink coat, on behalf of the store.

List of National Memorial (Silver) Cross Mothers

(Information courtesy of the Royal Canadian Legion, Canadian War Museum and families of the National Memorial (Silver) Cross Mothers)