Serving Lake Erie’s North Shore Friday December 12, 2014
LEB HOLIDAY SCHEDULE This will be our final edition for 2014. We will be closing for the first four weeks in January. Our first New Year edition will be mailed Friday February 6, 2015
We wish all our readers, writers, friends, family and especially our advertisers the very best for the holiday season and for the coming year. Andrew, Linda and family.
INSIDE Get Behind The Wheelhouse! The George Barnes Memorial Wheelhouse was the navigational control room on the laker ‘Fernglen’. STORY PAGE 3
Holiday treats and gift ideas. Shop locally whenever you can. PAGE 4
Port Stanley Report This year’s Dickens Day Parade was held on Friday November 28th. The parade was enhanced with a full marching band from the University of Western Ontario as well as several new float entries. STORY PAGE 5
“We’ll be home by Christmas” A First World War Story by the Elgin Military Museum’s Jeffrey Booth
Community Events
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Classifieds & Service Directory Page 7 Business Roladex
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Wishing You A Merry Christmas
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We all know that the boys did not return for Christmas with their families. On the Western Front, there had been one million casualties and the fast battles of the summer had turned to slow mudfilled trenches of stagnation. Slowly everyone became aware that this was going to be a long war with many more millions yet to die. Starting on Christmas Eve, many troops sang Christmas carols across the lines, and at spots brass bands joined in their joyous singing. At first light of dawn on Christmas Day, some German soldiers emerged from their trenches and approached the Allied lines across no-man’s-land, calling out “Merry Christmas.” The Allied soldiers feared it was a trick, but seeing the Germans unarmed, they climbed out of their trenches and shook hands with the enemy soldiers. The men exchanged presents of cigarettes and plum puddings and sang
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carols. Some soldiers used this shortlived ceasefire for a more somber task: the retrieval of the bodies of comrades who had fallen between the lines. The so-called Christmas Truce of 1914 came only months after the outbreak of war and was the last example of the out-dated notion of chivalry between enemies in warfare. It has never been repeated on such a large scale.
To commemorate the 100th anniversary of that first Christmas of WWI, the Elgin Military Museum will open its doors to the public for an arts and crafts show on Saturday, December 13 from 10:00 am to 4:00 pm. Join us at 30 Talbot Street in St. Thomas for a cup of warm apple cider and to meet local artisans and crafters offering unique gift ideas for the holiday season. A 91st Battalion from Elgin County were among the first Canadians to sign up for WWI. Cheered on by their fellow citizens, here they march along Talbot Street in St. Thomas on their way to the train station and an unknown destiny in the trenches.
The work on the West Breakwater Port Stanley: Many in the region are visiting Port Stanley’s harbour walkway and beach, wanting to know what exactly is going on at the West Breakwater. For too many years it was neglected and left to deteriorate, risking the future of the harbour itself. Nothing was going to be done until Transport Canada divested the harbour in September 2010. This was part of their strategy to reach a deal on divestiture – a threat to fence off the harbour property and leave it to go natural over time. Fortunately, the deal reached with the Municipality of Central Elgin did come with $13.5 Million to repair infrastructure and conduct any necessary dredging over time. This was not enough to do everything that needed to be done. However, with careful investment, and careful spending the harbour will be preserved for the Commercial Fishery and recreational uses.
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Have a Safe & Happy Holiday!
This Christmas, we celebrate the 100th anniversary of one of the last and greatest acts of humankind’s ability to act with common sense, compassion and hope. The Christmas Truce bears repeating, if only for a day the troubles of the world “can” disappear. Humankind then may be at peace and if only in our hearts, we can all be back home for Christmas.
In 1914, our boys marched off to war. Their battle cry was “We’ll be back by Christmas.”
Dan McNeil
LOOK AHEAD
Photograph from the Elgin Military Museum collection.
The original west breakwater was completed in 1832. The current structure is over 100 years old. The concrete breakwater is actually built on top of wooden cribs filled with stone. Maintaining the integrity of these cribs is extremely important, and was the reason
Left: Port Stanley Councillor Dan McNeil at the safety gate on the West Breakwater in the early fall, prior to work starting. Below: Equipment working on the West Breakwater through the fall. why the work was started this year. The cribs have deteriorated and have missing timbers. Some areas are worse than others. The most important work involves attaching permanent 10mm thick steel panels, by divers, to the wooden cribs with long lag bolts (underwater). These steel panels are cut to size to suit each specific area to be repaired and extend upward to the concrete. The steel panels continue to just above the water and are anchored to the concrete with bolts. The space between crib and the concrete will be filled with a bagged concrete seal. There will be space above this seal between the steel and the breakwater. It will be highly irregular and will be filled with horizontal and vertical steel rebar welded to the steel plate. Finally, the space will be filled with concrete. This work will include the crib holding up our heritage lighthouse. The reconstruction of the upper surface of the breakwater was done as Continued On Page 6