Lorne Ernest “Ernie” Liddle

BIRTH
1918
Lanark, Lanark County, Ontario, Canada

DEATH
20 Sep 1998 (aged 79–80)
Almonte, Lanark County, Ontario, Canada

BURIAL
Pine Grove Cemetery, Lanark, Lanark County, Ontario, Canada

This afternoon whilst tricycling about the neighbourhood in a manifestly smug and carefree manner (enthused no question by my late day athleticism – though admittedly moderated and undeniably comforted by my reserve of subordinate electric power at hand with the press of a button) I stumbled upon my erstwhile banker Colleen, formerly of Bank of Montreal on Mill Street in the centre of town opposite my own equally historic office building on Little Bridge Street. Colleen (parenthetically not unlike her daughter Sarah who years later followed in her mother’s footsteps) distinguished herself as a knowledgeable and exceptionally affable banker.

Perhaps unknown to both Colleen and me when we first met early in my career, her father Ernie Liddle was among the first of those by whom I was employed for legal services. But it was only today – in this casual mail box encounter- that i learned her father was born in Middleville on or near his family farm. This to me is the most extraordinary intelligence – particularly so, by utter serendipity, because it is at this time of year that the Middleville Fair transpires.  The Middleville Fair is a must for anyone who aligns themselves in the least with the authenticity of Lanark County and all that it entails (please see image below).

About 50 years ago when I met Ernie Liddle (I do not now recall the circumstances or the nature of the retainer), I was just awakening to the stimulating fibre and nutrients of Lanark County heritage.  Unquestionably I then suffered the haughty reserve of a city boy with a narrow social exposure. Graduating to the refined and rich stream of learning from the rural vernacular was at first a challenge; but it was one which was unhesitatingly embraced – and never to be relinquished. It was people like Ernie Liddle who crystallized the character of Lanark County  – wholesome, intelligent and kind.

Only this afternoon while idly conversing with Colleen about the attraction of her family history, I touched upon my own ephemeral acquaintance with and involvement in this distinctive heritage. Naturally Scottish and Irish figured in my dialogue with Colleen (reportedly her Christian name is an Irish derivative). Ernie Liddle probably had an earlier business association with Raymond A. Jamieson QC whose law office I assumed upon my arrival in Almonte in 1976 (at the end of Jamieson’s practice here upon his graduation from Osgoode Hall, Toronto in 1921). Jamieson – and other local stalwarts such as Robert J. France, Albert T. Gale, Arnold Craig, “Honey” Honeyborne, Bill Bellamy, John Bell, Russell Bain Thompson, JC “Jack” Smithson and John Hawley Kerry – provided a broad and informative introduction to rural living and celebrity.