(died 13 Feb. 1955, aged 77), soldier, civil servant. (Col. Gillies, John A. Gillies, V. D.) Born at Glen Norman, GC. Parents: John Gillies and his wife Margaret McMillan. John A. Gillies joined the 59th Battalion in 1897 as a private. In 1912 he was named district representative for the Eastern Ontario Dairymen’s Association. (Glengarry News 13 Dec. 1912 ) He was a recruiting officer in the GC area in early WWI. (GN 22 Jan. & 5 March 1915) At this time he held the rank of captain. He commanded “D” Company of the 154th Battalion, and went overseas with it in 1916.

     In Ottawa, where he settled after WWI, Gillies belonged to staff of the Dept. of Soldiers’ Re-establishment, and later the Dept. of Immigration. He continued his connection with the military, and commanded the SDG Highlanders from 1924 to 1929 with rank of lieutenant colonel. Afterwards, he was commanding officer of the 8th Infantry Brigade for three years with the rank of colonel. He retired from the Civil Service in 1945. He was one of the founders of St. Margaret Mary’s Parish in Ottawa South. He was a member of the Knights of Columbus, and served on the Ottawa Separate School Board. He was president of the Glengarry Highland Society, 1912-1913 (GN 11 July 1913), president of the Ottawa St. Andrew’s Society and the Ottawa Gaelic Society, and president of a federation of the Gaelic and Highland Societies of Canada formed in a meeting at the Chateau Laurier, in Ottawa, in 1941(GN 6 June 1941). He was on the Regimental Historical Committee for the preparation of Lt Col. Boss’s 1952 history of the SDG Highlanders regiment. Col. Gillies died in Veterans’ Pavilion, Civic Hospital, Ottawa. He was married to Katherine Isabel McGillis. (children) Roman Catholic. He is buried at St. Finnan’s cemetery.

     Because of the similarity, it may be noted that another Col. Gillies, Austin B. Gillies (d. 1938) of the well-known Gillies lumbering family, was “prominent in military circles” in Ottawa and “well-known in Hawkesbury and district.”

Glengarry News 17 Feb. 1955, repr. in Ross, Lancaster, 357-358 * Boss 64, 70-76, 200, portrait * many notices of his military career in GN over many years, e.g. GN 23 June 1905, 11 Sept. 1914, 16 Dec. 1921, 20 June 1924, 12 Dec. 1924, 1 Dec. 1929 11 Dec. 1931 * contributes GC stories to Ottawa Citizen’s “Old Time Stuff” column, Cornwall Freeholder 31 May 1930 * tells a story in Gaelic at meeting of Gaelic Society of Ottawa, GN 11 Feb. 1938 (repr. from Ottawa Citizen) * his brother Lance Sgt. L. A. Gillies, wounded in France, WWI, GN 13 Oct. 1916 * Austin B. Gillies: obituary Vankleek Hill Review 3 Feb. 1938 (QF); Charlotte Whitton, A Hundred Years A-Fellin’ [on Gillies family] (1942)