Sam McQuillan's parents were Northern Irish who married in Belfast in 1901. His father William John McQuillan (b.1872) had an uncle who had a farm in Canada. William came to Canada in 1904 and his wife Agnes Magill Blacker (b. 1881) followed him to Toronto the next year, bringing their two small sons William Jr and Robert. William worked as a teamster. They had several more children – Sarah (“Sadie”), Margaret, Ernest, Albert and Ethel and lived on Withrow Avenue near Logan Avenue. Sam was the second last, born March 3, 1915. When the youngest child Catherine arrived in 1917, the family was living on Swanwick Avenue near Main and Gerrard in the village of East Toronto. With the need for more space for the nine children, they settled at 265 Chisholm Avenue.

 

Sam began school at Secord, probably in 1920. The school was built the year Sam was born, but due to the mushrooming of the Little York/Cedarvale neighbourhoods, Secord was over capacity and Danforth Park opened in 1922, educating the children living on Chisholm Avenue and to the west to Woodbine Avenue. Sam would have joined the Grade 2 cohort. Before World War II, most schools had active summer and evening drop-in programs for kids and would put together sports teams to play neighbourhood schools. Danforth Park had an impressive swimming pool. Sam liked to swim and in November 1928 he came in third in the boys 50 yard freestyle in a swim meet against Secord. Sam graduated from Danforth Park in the Class of 1929 and he continued at East York High School.

 

In January 1930, Agnes, who had had heart troubles, died of a stroke at the East General Hospital. William Sr's farmer uncle passed away the same year. Sam quit school at the end of Grade 10 and his father decided to move to the family farm in Emsdale, Ontario, 25 kilometres north of Huntsville. Sam, Margaret and Catherine moved with him while the two other sisters remained in Toronto. Eventually the four older brothers moved to Vancouver, British Columbia. Sam remained on the family farm.

 

In 1934 Sam had his appendix removed and other than injuring his legs in a cave accident in 1931, he was in good health. After seven and a half years in Emsdale, Sam decided to leave the farm and join his brothers in Vancouver. He moved in with his brother Albert and found a job as a shipyard fitter. At the time, his father was in poor health and Sam sent him $33 a month.

 

Sam enlisted in the army on June 13, 1942 and on June 27 he was sent to Vernon, BC for basic training. On August 24, he was 11 hours AWOL arriving at his new camp in Calgary, probably because he missed a train connection. On October 24, he arrived back at camp after being AWOL for almost 34 days. He was given 28 days' detention and forfeited 34 days' pay. He was released on November 20, four days early for good behaviour. After this incident, his behaviour became exemplary and he was promoted to acting lance corporal on December 10. In February 1943 he was re-allocated to the infantry and visited his Ontario family during his embarkation leave that month.

 

He shipped overseas on March 10, 1943 and arrived in Britain on March 17. Sam reverted to a private when he left Canada. On April 28, he was sent as a reinforcement to the Loyal Edmonton Regiment (“The Loyal Eddies”) and became a sniper. An army sniper is an excellent marksman who is usually camouflaged and provides fire to eliminate an enemy and facilitate an advance or to prevent the enemy from advancing.

 

The Loyal Eddies had been in Britain since the end of 1939, training and wondering when they were going to be deployed. In August 1941 they took part in an expedition to the remote Spitzbergen Islands 700 kilometres north of Norway to capture them for a naval base. The regiment soon returned to Britain. By the spring of 1943, the war in North Africa was over and the Allies were now in a position to invade Italy. A few days after Sam joined the regiment, it left southern England for six weeks of amphibious training in Scotland.

 

The regiment climbed aboard the Durban Castle transport ship on the Clyde River on June 14, 1943 and set sail for an unknown destination. It was soon revealed that the target was Sicily and they were on one of 3000 ships destined for Italy. On the morning of July 10 the soldiers stormed the shores of southern Sicily. The forces quickly moved north in the early days of the invasion, finding little resistance from the Italian army. After several years in Britain, the Sicilian summer heat made the march inland wearying and the army vehicles kicked up dust that choked the men. As the days went by, they met strong German reinforcements and the fighting became more fierce. The regiment had its first casualties on July 14 in the town of Ragusa. Two days later they encountered their first German opposition, south of Piazza Armerina. The Germans knew how to use the hilly terrain and winding roads to their advantage.