John Hillman is likely the capital region’s best-known centenarian, thanks to his dogged determination to raise money for Save the Children Canada.
The 105-year-old Second World War veteran was in the spotlight while living at Carlton House in Oak Bay, where he captured the attention of the community by doing laps around the courtyard with his walker as a fundraiser for the charity.
He would walk his age in laps while the donations poured in, accumulating more than $440,000 from 2020-2023.
Now at Veterans Memorial Lodge, Hillman announced in March that he wouldn’t be physically able to do his annual walk this year, but insisted he can still fundraise “in spirit” and will continue to support children’s causes.
“Save the Children is collecting money all the time,” he said from his room at the lodge.
The lodge is run by Broadmead Care, which is putting its veteran residents in the spotlight this year to mark the 80th anniversary of D-Day — coming up next Thursday — and the 100th anniversary of the Royal Canadian Air Force.
About 100 of the lodge’s 225 residents are veterans.
Stories about veterans like Hillman and the lodge they call home are being compiled for a special June 8 insert in the Times Colonist called “Heroes Among Us.”
Broadmead Care is hoping the stories will inspire donations to a fundraising initiative called Rooted in Care, which aims to refurbish the gardens and nine courtyard areas where lodge residents enjoy the outdoors.
About $130,000 has already been raised toward the $600,000 goal, enough for work on three of the courtyards to be completed.
Hillman and his wife, Irene, made Canada their permanent home in 1999 after his post-military career as an electrical engineer.
He said he is thankful that he has been able to do something for charity in his later years.
His annual walks generated wide support and plenty of media recognition, and his dedication was clear as he pushed through challenges and tough circumstances — like Irene’s death during his 2021 effort.
Hillman said at the time that he had committed to complete his walk on behalf of children “and I wasn’t going to let them down.”
He was born in Wales, one of five siblings, and said he joined the Royal Air Force before the war broke out “because it was the height of depression in Wales and there were no jobs for youngsters.”
He was 17 when he joined in 1937, receiving permission from his father to sign up before the standard age of 18, and went on to become a wireless operator. That took him to France, South Africa, Italy and Burma.
“I didn’t win the war but I did a little part, a little tiny part.”
His son-in-law, Ralph McDiarmid, is writing the full account of Hillman’s time in the war with the title Two Angels on My Shoulders — a nod to two particular instances where fate intervened to keep Hillman alive in the face of extreme danger.
One was when he was not chosen to be part of a mission by his squadron while in France to bomb some bridges, McDiarmid said. “The squadron was more or less annihilated,” he said.
The other was in the aftermath, when he was part of a group heading to the coast to meet up with a troop ship.
The soldiers arrived to find the Germans had attacked the port where the ship was docked a day earlier and sunk it, resulting in thousands of deaths.
“By not getting on that troop ship the day before, he was spared again,” McDiarmid said.
Hillman began his annual fundraisers at the age of 101 after hearing about a fellow Burma veteran in England, Tom Moore, who was just shy of his hundredth birthday and raising money for COVID-19 programs with a walkathon.
“I thought to myself: ‘What he’s doing I can do’,” said Hillman, who chose Save the Children as his charity after he saw a video on the organization.
“I thought that I’d had my time and now I’ll do something for those kids.”
• Discover the stories of veterans living at Veterans Memorial Lodge at broadmeadcare.com/people-and-stories.
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