Roly Armitage, the Second World War veteran, accomplished veterinarian and influential community leader whose keen involvement in local affairs made him a household name in Ottawa's rural west end and beyond, has died. He was 99.Roly Armitage in his room at Ottawa's Perley Health in November. Armitage was barely 17 when he enlisted to fight in the Second World War. He died on Wednesday at 99.
Instead, Armitage laid a wreath on June 6 at a remembrance ceremony at Ottawa's Perley Health, where he took up residence last fall. It wasn't France, but he wouldn't have missed it, say those who knew him. In March 1942, he and a schoolmate were on lunch break from Ottawa Tech when they decided to join the line outside an enlistment office.
Last summer, Armitage and Sonja Jobes, by then 83 and living in the U.S., met in an emotional reunion.After the war, Armitage finished high school and married Mary Spearman, a girl from Stittsville he'd known before the war in 1947. He later enrolled in the Ontario Veterinary College, graduating in 1951.
Armitage served as mayor of West Carleton Township from 1991 to 1994, and was a member of the old regional council. He ran the Carp Airport and the Rideau Carleton Raceway, and also raised and trained Standardbred horses,"This sounds biased, but I don't know anybody who has done so much with their life," said his nephew Jeff Armitage.
About 10 years ago, Jeff Armitage began accompanying his uncle on his many return trips to Europe, and said Roly was always treated as a hero there, too — especially in the Netherlands where he helped run a hotel after the war, and where he'd always stay for free, including on his final visit there last year.
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Source: ctvottawa - 🏆 29. / 67 Read more »