Photo: Bruce Forsyth.
October 2020
In May 1942, George McNutt left his family farm in Medonte Township, taking a train from the nearby Canadian Pacific Railway station at Craighurst, and joined the Canadian Army, serving initially with the Lanark and Renfrew Scottish Regiment.
He never returned home.
On 4 October 1944, Private George McNutt died while fighting in Italy with the Perth Regiment. He was 26 years old.
McNutt was buried along with the other members of his regiment and Canadian soldiers in the Ravenna War Cemetery in Ravenna, Italy.
The family erected a personal cenotaph to George’s memory in Knox Presbyterian Cemetery.
In 2015, Oro-Medonte Township renamed the section of Line 1 Road that runs past the old family farm McNutt Road, in honour of the long-lost soldier who like many of his generation, died way too young.
Memorial plaque to Private George McNutt, with the family farm in the background. Photo: Bruce Forsyth. 
George McNutt’s name is included on the back of his parent’s tombstone in Craighurst Presbyterian Cemetery. Photo: Bruce Forsyth.
Sources: https://www.veterans.gc.ca/eng/remembrance/memorials/canadian-virtual-war-memorial/detail/2223120, Oro-Medonte historical marker, https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/120380213/george-robert-mcnutt.
