The Hilys from Brittany

Two of the posts last month featured Louis John Hiley and his parents Louis François and Mary Hily. Louis John was born on Cape Breton Island and his father Louis François on St Pierre et Miquelon.

St Pierre et Miquelon was first settled by immigrant seafarers from western France (mainly Basques, Normans, and Bretons) early in the 17th century.

Louis François's father, also called Louis François, was born in Le Minihic-sur-Rance, a commune just south of St Malo in Brittany. Louis François snr was born in 1857.  

The towns of Minihic-sur-Rance and Pleurtuit in Ille-et-Vilaine in Brittany

At some point before the year 1891 Louis François snr made the journey, possibly sailing from St Malo, to St Pierre et Miquelon because it was there in 1891 that he married Honora Power. He is described as a carpenter on the marriage record. Louis François jnr was born the following year and Louis François snr died in 1897 in St Pierre.

Record of the death of Louis François snr in 1897

Translation by Alexander Hiley:

On this day August 26th eighteen hundred and ninety seven, at nine o’clock in the morning, in the presence of  Marie Lefevre, first deputy delegate of the civil registry of the municipality of Saint Pierre (islands of the French colony Saint Pierre and Miquelon) appear before us:  Mr Hily, Jean Marie, 38 years old, carpenter, cousin to the deceased and Pierre Lefèvre, 39 years old, master blacksmith, both of whom residing and domiciled on Saint Pierre, declare that last night, at half past six in the evening Louis François Hily, aged 40, carpenter, residing and domiciled at Rue de la Gentille on this island, born in Minihic-sur-Rance (Ille -et-Vilaine) on August 27th eighteen hundred and fifty seven, son of the late Jean Hily and Marie Joséphine Dupre, husband to Honora Power, housewife residing on said island, died at his home whereby confirmation of his death has been made. The declarants have signed alongside us the present act after it was given to them to read.

It is possible to trace the Hilys back for several more generations.

Louis François snr.'s Hily ancestors were:

Jean Louis Hily

Born 1815 

Married Marie Josephine Dupré in 1844

Louis René Hily

Born 1776 

Married Jeanne Marie Monnier in 1803

Died 1833

André Hily

Born 1731

Married Françoise Huby in 1760

Died 1781

Guillaume Hily 

Married Guillemette Levesque in 1731

All the births, marriages and burials of the above four Hilys took place in Pleurtuit - see map above.

l'église St Pierre in Pleurtuit

A later photo of the church
The spire of the bell tower was removed in 1941

The Dilemma of Doctor Hiley

Sexton Blake is a fictional detective who has been featured in many British comic strips, novels, silent and sound films, radio serials and TV series. The first story 'The Missing Millionaire' appeared in 1893 and from then until 1978 Blake starred in more than 4000 stories. 

The stories were written by about 200 different authors. One of these was Walter Tyrer, and in 1952 he wrote 'The Dilemma of Doctor Hiley'. The story is listed as No. 258 in the Sexton Blake Library (3rd Series) and was published by Amalgamated Press.

Front cover of the book

Ralph Hiley is introduced on page 4

In the story Sexton Blake and his sidekick Tinker help to track down a man who is on the run and infected by a deadly virus. Dr. Hiley and Nurse Joan Schofield look after the man when he is caught and hospitalised and nurse him back to health, but have to spend a period of isolation together afterwards to make sure they have not been infected. They fall in love but Dr. Hiley reveals that he is already married but that his wife Rita left him and he has not seen her for many years. Sexton Blake locates Rita but she is very ill and requires a life-saving operation which is performed by Dr. Hiley. She tells him that after she left him she married another man which means that the doctor and the nurse are now free to marry each other.

Louis Francois Hily

This post looks at Louis John Hiley's parents and where they came from.

His father Louis François Hily was born in St Pierre et Miquelon, tiny islands off the coast of Newfoundland, in 1892. Though part of North America, they remain territorial possessions of France. The inhabitants speak French and adhere to French customs and traditions.

Louis François married Mary McKinnon in February 1917. He was a Boilermaker by trade and by this time was living in Halifax on Cape Breton Island, part of Nova Scotia. Later that year he signed up to fight in the First World War. Louis's surname was Hily but his 3 children all adopted the surname spelling Hiley. Mary was from Nova Scotia.

Louis and Mary's grave in Holy Cross Cemetery
Sydney, Cape Breton

A page from the stamp collection of David Hiley

Next month - look out for

The Hilys of  Brittany in France

Louis John Hiley

Louis John Hiley was born on 14th June 1917 in Sydney on Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia, Canada. He signed up  in October 1939 and joined the 1st Battalion Cape Breton Highlanders. His attestation papers show him as a labourer and single. His parents were Louis François and Mary.

Signals Platoon of Headquarters Company

Cape Breton Highlanders

Sydney, Nova Scotia, c1940

Louis is on the far right of the 3rd and 4th rows

Source: website 'Cape Breton Military History Collections'

Canada's participation in the Italian Campaign was one of the most important efforts the Canadian Army made during the Second World War. More than 93,000 Canadians served in Italy between the summer of 1943 and the winter of 1945 and more than 26,000 of them would become casualties.

In May 1944 The Cape Breton Highlanders were involved in the Battle of the Liri Valley near Cassino in Italy, between Rome and Naples. Heavy fighting took place to breach the enemy's formidable Hitler Line. On 23rd May, under the cover of heavy mortar and machine gun fire, the Canadians broke through the German defences. Louis was killed in action on that day and was buried in the Cassino War Cemetery.

Canadian forces advancing to the Hitler Line
Liri Valley, Italy
May 1944
Source: website 'Cape Breton Military History Collections'

                     L-R Louis Hiley, Fred Cederberg and Tom Summerall.
                             Submitted for the project, Operation Picture Me
Photo is a copy of the version available on the Veterans Affairs Canada website.

About 800 Canadians were killed in the Battle of the Liri Valley, while about 2500 more were wounded. The Italian Campaign played an important role in helping the Allies eventually end the Second World War. The fighting there tied down German soldiers in Italy and kept them from being used to reinforce enemy troops on the Eastern Front or along the coast of Northwest Europe where they could have helped resist the eventual Allied landings on D-Day.

Louis's grave at Cassino

Next post: Louis's parents - Louis François and Mary

Hileys/Highleys killed in WW2

The Commonwealth War Graves Commission website lists 29 Hileys and 11 Highleys who were killed in the First World War. So far in this Blog there have been posts about 17 of these soldiers.

On their Welcome page the Commission says:

WE HONOUR AND CARE FOR THE MEN AND WOMEN

 OF THE COMMONWEALTH FORCES WHO DIED IN

 THE FIRST AND SECOND WORLD WARS, ENSURING

 THEY WILL NEVER BE FORGOTTEN.

The site gives details about each soldier who died:

Name

Date of death and age at death

Rank and service number

Regiment and unit

Country of burial

Cemetery and grave reference

Additional family information

There are details of the cemetery where the soldier is buried or the monument where the soldier is commemorated. Sometimes there is a map of the cemetery so that the grave can be located.

There are also details of the personal and military inscriptions on the headstones and grave registration details.

Grave of James Joseph Highley from Halifax Berles New Military Cemetery

Longuenesse (St Omer) Souvenir Cemetery Fred Hiley from Rugeley is buried here

In the Second World War 7 Hileys and 3 Highleys were killed. This year the Blog will feature some of these soldiers as well as those from WW1.

The first in this series will be Louis John Hiley, from Sydney in Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia. Louis fought with the Cape Breton Highlanders and was killed in Italy in 1944.

Look out for the next post!

The Hiley Peach

Hiley peach

Following on from last week's story of a ship named after a notable Hiley, this week's post features a fruit named after another notable Hiley.

Eugene Walter Hiley was a descendant of Georg Heyle who left Germany and arrived in Philadelphia in 1732. Georg's family adopted the surname spelling Hiley.

Eugene was born in Marshalville in Macon County, Georgia in 1860. He developed a strain of peaches known as the Hiley Belle peach. This peach was heavily planted throughout the middle Georgia region for several decades. It is now known as the Georgia Belle peach.

From 'The Peaches of New York' Annual Report 1917:

In spite of keen competition with many other early, white-fleshed peaches, there seems to be  a place for Hiley. Two characters make it notable in its class. It is the earliest commercial freestone, white-fleshed peach and it is rather better in quality than most of its competitors. Well grown, the peaches are large in size and handsomely colored but the fruits are not quite as uniform in either size or color as could be desired for a commercial variety. The trees, while productive, are neither large nor sufficiently hardy and vigorous to make an ideal commercial sort. Still, we must end as we began, with the statement that there is a place for Hiley because of earliness and high quality. The fruits, unfortunately, are easy prey to brown-rot.

Hiley originated with Eugene Hiley, Marshallville, Georgia, about 1886. Seeds of several varieties, including Belle and Elberta, were planted and from these sprang one tree which bore the fruit under discussion. R. A. Hiley, who seems to have first discovered its value, is of the opinion that this variety is a seedling of Belle crossed with Alexander. The new peach was first named Early Belle and the first crops were shipped under this name. Later the name was changed to Hiley. 

From 'Varieties of Peaches' by J.C.C. Price Horticulturist, August 1930

Prunus persica 'Hiley'

The Dredger 'Sir Thomas Hiley'

Sir Thomas Hiley

Today, as a change, we feature a ship which was named after Sir Thomas Alfred (Tom) Hiley (1905-1990), who appeared in the post of 12th May 2020.

The 'Sir Thomas Hiley' was built in 1971. It was a 'Trailing Sucker Hopper Dredger' and was sold and renamed 'Yong Ho 1' in 2001 to the South Korean company Yongho Industrial.

The dredger operated out of the port of Brisbane and spent most of its time in projects on the Sunshine Coast.

Trailing Sucker Hopper Dredgers are oceangoing vessels that can collect sand and silt from the seabed and transport it over large distances. They can be used for the construction and maintenance of ports and waterways as well as land reclamation and coastal defence and riverbank protection.

The 'Sir Thomas Hiley' dredger in Granite Bay
From website 'Heritage Noosa' - use of image permitted

Image from Dredgepoint - used with permission