R
emembrance Day November 11
Military Profiles Parade Schedule “A Trip to Remember� Photo Gallery Tribute in Verse
A Special Supplement to THE FREE PRESS
We will remember them.
City Hall 501-3rd Ave., Box 190 Fernie, BC V0B 1M0 www.fernie.ca
A Day to Remember The City of Fernie honours our veterans and thanks those who have served and continue to serve.
C2
THE FREE PRESS Thursday, November 5, 2015
REMEMBRANCE DAY
Remembrance Day Services Wednesday, November 11, 2015
Royal Canadian Legion Branch # 36, Fernie 10:40 am 10:55 am 11:00 am 11:45 am
SMS Equipment
Remembers‌
Parade marches to the Cenotaph Cenotaph Service 2 minute Wave of Silence begins Parade forms up again and marches back to the Legion An Ecumenical service will follow in the Legion Hall
Royal Canadian Legion Branch #81, Sparwood 10:00 am 10:45 am 10:55 am
Church Service, Seniors drop-in centre at 101 Pine Avenue Parade formation after service Cenotaph Ceremony March back to the seniors drop-in centre Hot chocolate for the participating youth A hot meal at Michel-Natal Branch 81, 117 Centennial Square
Royal Canadian Legion Branch # 279, Elkford Elkford: 250-865-4651
smsequip.com SE205•SMS14-323_PRT Free Press Rem Day Ad.indd 1
10:00 am 10:45 am 11:00 am 11:30 am
Alliance Church Service Procession to Cenotaph at District of Elkford Office Cenotaph Ceremony Refreshments at Elkford Community Conference Centre
2014-10-20 11:32 AM
A day to remember... Thank you to those who sacrificed for our freedom.
6165 Brenners Road, Fernie, BC
250-423-9211
www.fernieford.ca
In association with Legacy Auto Group
REMEMBRANCE DAY
THE FREE PRESS Thursday, November 5, 2015 C3
For Your SACRIFICE
The Cenotaph Ken C. Carlson Capt. Retd., enrolled in Oct. 1941 with the R.C.N.V.R. as a stoker. This part-time service came to an end in Jan. 1942, with a call to active service. Capt. Carlson served until demobilized in Aug. 1945. In 1949 he became an officer in the Royal Canadian Sea Cadet Corp in Kelowna, and subsequently was involved in the start-up of the corps in both Vernon and Williams Lake, B.C., retiring in 1971.
For Our FREEDOM
THANK YOU!
A former resident of Rocky Mountain Village in Fernie, he now resides in the George Derby Centre in Burnaby.
As I walk by the cenotaph, I pause deep in thought. I think of the men who so bravely fought Wars of the past, the cause ours to remember Every day. Not just in November! I think of the soldiers in trenches and mud I think of the wounded, all covered with blood. I think of the many who were lost at sea, And I thank God, that one wasn’t me. I think of the airmen who fought in the sky Who went out on missions that oft went awry I think of the paratroopers falling from above And I think of them all with a lot of love. As I walk by the cenotaph, I touch my cap peak In a silent salute. In my mind I still seek A reason for the memorial. We have a debt We cannot repay. We must not forget! As I stand by the cenotaph in chilly November I am with others who come to remember The comrades they had, and lost in that war. Not the last one, the one just before. The memorial is there in every city or town big or small In a park, the city centre, or in front of the Legion Hall. The cenotaph is a reminder that we never learn Wars are not won. And they always return. The cause may be religion or a different ideology It may be a nation feels threatened, or maybe They just wish to gain some more territory. It will start a new war, it’s the same old story. As I stand by the cenotaph, and hear the bugle play Taps, and reveille, I wipe tears away. Then comes the kiltie with the bagpipe lament And I think of the young men who so bravely went. They answered a call, came from all walks of life For a reason uncertain. They followed drum and fife And marched off to war, and never returned. War is a dead end, a lesson not yet learned. As I stand by the cenotaph on Remembrance Day I think of the sacrifices, the many who passed away And in those memories there is one regret The words we ignore are “Lest We Forget
by Ken C. Carlson, Capt. Retd.
Cherished Memories Funeral Services Ltd. & Cherished Memories Crematorium Ltd.
C4
THE FREE PRESS Thursday, November 5, 2015
REMEMBRANCE DAY
A Trip of Remembrance By John Chalmers Submitted
A
book called The Stone Carvers, by Canadian author Jane Urquhart provided motivation to see the great monument at Vimy Ridge in France, at the sight of one of the “Canada Mourns,” The largest worst battles statue at the monument, was of the First carved on site, as were all statues World War. at the memorial, and symbolizes The story Cananda mourning her dead gave a human perspective for the monument designed by Canadian sculptor and architect, Walter Allward (1875-1955). So my wife, Linda, and I decided that our travels in a trip to England should include an excursion to Vimy Ridge. Allward’s design for the magnificent structure won a competition in the early 1920s and after construction finally started, the monument took 11 years to build. On April 9, 2007, ninety years to the day when the battle began on Vimy Ridge, Queen Elizabeth, P r i m e Minister Stephen Harper and French Prime Walter Allward, circa 1930 Courtesy of Archives of Ontario Minister Dominique de Villepin of France officially rededicated the great monument after nearly two and a half years of restoration work. We already had tickets for a flight to London. The main focus of our trip would be to attend the 90th anniversary of Royal Air Force 101 Squadron, with which my uncle, Flight Sergeant navigator Alfred Chalmers perished with all eight aboard their Lancaster bomber on August 30, 1944. Previously, on August 30, 2001 I stood at the gravesite in Denmark of those young men and realized later that it marked the beginning of my research and writing about our military history. On the internet, we booked tickets for the trip to France, travelling from London under the English Channel aboard the Eurostar train. After a few days in London, taking in such sights as Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace, the National Gallery, the British Museum, St. Paul’s Cathedral and two nights at the theatre, we boarded the train for a ride through the “chunnel.”
We alit at Lille, France, only an hour and a half later. In Lille we took a rental car for the drive to Vimy Ridge to see the great monument that commemorates the terrible four-day battle In Lille that began on April 9, 1917. Working together for the first time, 15,000 infantry in four Canadian army Divisions took the height of land in the First World War. The victory was at a cost of 3,598 Canadian lives and another 7,000 wounded. On a perfect day for our drive we could see in the distance the towering pylons representing Canada and France. But our first stop was at the roadside La Chaudière Cemetery with graves from 1916-18. There we first felt the impact of young men lost in
Today in the green parkland surrounding the monument stands a planted forest, commemorating Canadian soldiers who fell. But near the monument are fenced areas with signs which warn of places still remaining dangerous because of unexploded shells. Walter Allward’s design resulted in a splendid monument of white stone bearing
A statue of a female mourner at the Vimy Memorial. Within a 20-kilometre radious of the Vimy Memorial there are more than 7,000 Canadian soldiers buried in 30 cemeteries.
La Chaudière Cemetery near Vimy Ridge. In the distance on the horizon, the two pylons of the Vimy Memorial can be seen.
battle who never returned to their families. Row upon row, many military headstones marked the graves of men whose remains were unidentified. Instead of name, rank and regiment, the inscription on some markers read, “A Canadian Soldier of The Great War. Known Unto God.” In that cemetery alone there are 638 Canadian and 268 British graves. Beyond the cornfields, sunflower and potato crops of the Douai plain stood the Vimy monument, brilliant in the morning sun.
In that cemetery alone there are 638 Canadian and 268 British graves. Beyond the cornfields, sunflower and potato crops of the Douai plain stood the Vimy monument, brilliant in the morning sun.
The whiteness of the monument, when seen from a distance is its most outstanding feature seen against the green of the land surrounding it. Shortly afterwards we arrived atop Hill 145 at the battle site where the monument is now located on Vimy Ridge. From the monument, standing beside the statue of a woman representing Canada mourning her lost young men, we could look east upon the countryside once devastated by war soaked with the blood of soldiers. Historic photos show the battlefield site that was shelled without a tree left standing. Villages in the area were reduced to rubble.
20 statues, each character symbolic and meaningful. Allward created each statue as a half-size model in plaster for professional carvers to use in shaping the white stone from an ancient quarry in present-day Croatia. Seventeen of the models are displayed at
A statue depicting a male mourner at the Vimy Memorial. Within a 20-kilometre radius of the Vimy Memorial there are more than 7,000 Canadian soldiers buried in 30 cemeteries
the Canadian War Museum in Ottawa, and three are in a museum at Canadian Forces Base Kingston. It is hard to put into words the effect that the monument has upon one’s thoughts. A colleague, Timothy Dubé, who served as a military historian and archivist with Library and Archives Canada in O t t a w a , responded to my request for a comment in this way, when I asked what importance he feels that the monument represents. He said, “I feel quite “Breaking of the Sword, one of inadequate to the many statues at the Vimy comment about Memorial. the importance of Vimy Ridge and the Vimy Memorial. The battle and its memorial do not symbolize the birth of a nation, as some people have
said. Instead, like too many memorials they mark the price paid by a country to ensure its survival. It is not the Vimy Memorial’s soaring columns that I see. Instead, my eyes, my mind, and my heart are drawn to its base and the names of the 11,285 Canadian soldiers inscribed on it who were posted ‘missing, presumed dead’ in France. They are
The Canadian National Vimy Memorial is situated at the highest point of Vimy Ridge, overlooking the Douai Plain
a very small part of the more than 66,000 Canadian soldiers killed in the First World War. I am reminded, too, of Sir Arthur Currie’s words to the Canadian Corps before a battle in 1918, when he said, ‘To those who will fall, I say, you will not die, but step into immortality... your names will be revered forever by a grateful country.’
“For too many years, Canadians had forgotten that pledge. With the Vimy Memorial’s rededication and the attention that Canadians, particularly Canadian youth, have shown in learning more about our history, that covenant has been restored. That’s what the Vimy Memorial means today,” says Dubé.
“For too many years, Canadians had forgotten that pledge. With the Vimy Memorial’s rededication and the attention that Canadians, particularly Canadian youth, have shown in learning more about our history, that covenant has been restored. That’s what the Vimy Memorial means today,” says Dubé. We walked across the battlefield site, through trenches resembling their 1917 appearance and took a tour through the tunnels below the battlefield where soldiers prepared to take the land above. There are 1.2 km of tunnels, of which 400 meters can be visited. Guides are Canadians, university students employed on fourmonth assignments through the Student Guide Program operated by Veterans Affairs Canada. Although reluctant to leave, we had other places to go in our trip of remembrance. Next was Ypres, in Belgium, a short distance away, a town shattered by the war and rebuilt to Continued on page C5
REMEMBRANCE DAY
THE FREE PRESS Thursday, November 5, 2015 C5
A Trip of Remembrance continued
A reconstructed trench of the First World War at the Vimy Memorial
its original glory in the central core. Ypres is the home of the Menin Gate memorial, where every day at 8:00 p.m. a ceremony remembers those who were lost in the Great War. On panels at the memorial are carved the names of 54,389 soldiers who died in the
The Menin Gate Memorial to the Missing in Ypres, Belgium.
area, and who have no known graves. Another stop as we travelled through Flanders fields was the Tyn Cot Cemetery near the battle site of Passchendaele, another bloody conflict of the First World War. There a Canadian victory was won in November 1917 at a cost of over 15,000 dead and wounded. It is at Tyn Cot Cemetery where we felt price of war the most. It is the largest cemetery in Europe maintained by the Commonwealth War Graves commission, where a staggering 11,956 graves are marked
by perfect rows of military headstones. After returning the rental car, next day was another quick trip through the chunnel to London, where across the street from Waterloo Station we picked up our rental car for the drive to Lincoln. We spent two days in celebrations with RAF 101 Squadron Association, drove around the County of Lincolnshire, stayed at B & B’s, toured the countryside and travelled 940 miles on the “wrong” side of the road, shifting a 5-speed transmission with my left hand. Highlights of the trip besides Vimy included visits to three major aviation museums in England and a chance to see flypasts by the only flying Lancaster bomber
Returning home, I have greater admiration than ever for Canadians who serve in our armed forces, and especially for those who gave their lives for freedom. Likewise, I have a greater understanding of civilians whose lives were shaken by the winds of war.
in the country. Of 7,400 Lancasters built for the Second World War, there are only about two dozen left in the world and only two of them fly. The other is in Canada at the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum at Mount Hope, Ontario, adjacent to Hamilton. Returning home, I have greater admiration than ever for Canadians who serve in our armed forces, and especially for those who gave their lives for freedom. Likewise, I have a greater understanding of civilians whose lives were shaken by the winds of war. In my own life, I am more proud than ever to have worn the uniform of the Royal Canadian Air Force as a member of RCAF reserve squadrons in my high school and university years. We must never forget.
Author note: John Chalmers is an Edmonton writer and historian who enjoys visiting family in Fernie. For more information, check internet sites for Vimy Ridge, the Menin Gate, Veterans Affairs Canada, the Canadian War Museum and the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.
The Tyn Cot Cemetery is the final resting place of 11,956 Commonwealth servicemen of the First World War. Of those, 8.369 are unidentified.
Fernie's Honour Roll (as it appears on the Fernie Cenotaph) WWI
J.C. Deed David Logan Frank Townsend Frank Herron Adam Howieson Andrew Cameron Garfield Mitchell James Scott J.J. Hixon T.J. Smith L. Tebo Thomas Wakelem John F. Annan G. Chedgy Joe Dingsdale Robert Connell William Fitzgerald Walter Harrison William Forsyth T.S. Ingram Pete Kennedy Harry James Thomas Martin Jock Kellog James Hixon Harry S. Branch John Myers N. Alke William Prince William McArthur Harry Zuince Hugh McLarkey Leonard Richardson Thomas Sowers Nathan Riley James Steele James Harrison Norman McBean J. Steele Robert J. Black John B. Cartmell Joseph Fearon James Corrigan Robert Forsyth James Gorrie Kenneth C. Carson
R.R. Henning Angus Dunlap Charles Hunnable Thomas Martin Stewart G. Corsan Joseph Leyland Peter Joinson Hector Murray Murdock McKay Thomas Shields Pasquale Perri William Peet Holden D. Stewart William Richardson William Wilson J.J. Martin Sam Poxon Charles Young Richard Strain John Anderson Thomas Dixon J.M. Murphy Arthur Slade Earnest Wilson George Evans John T. Dixon Jock Anderson John Appleby T.W. Stephens Cecil Holmes William McGuire Arthur Hopwood John Bough T.A. Fitzgerald James Corrigan Peter Green Sydney McHugh Alex Bunch William Phillips Thomas Wood F.M. Whitlow Charles Clarke Thomas Phillips James Raven John Gaskell A.G. Smith William Grant
WWII
Ronald Brewer Frank Corrigan Thomas FitzPatrick Paul Frayne William Gill James Howell Leslie Hunter Frank Ingram Peter Kane William Klauer William Mahoney Jack McCluskey James McLean Peter Stefik John Swope Alex Swiderski Frank Townsley Earl VanBuskirk Dean Washburn Fred Worth
Korea 1950-1953 Vincent Liska
“Lest We Forget
Erected to perpetuate our honoured dead and those who carried on in the Great War from Fernie and District.”
This saying is found on the Cenotaph in Fernie, which was erected on Victoria DayMay 24, 1923. The Cenotaph is still standing tall today in front of the Courthouse in Fernie.
C6
THE FREE PRESS Thursday, November 5, 2015
REMEMBRANCE DAY
Remembrance Day in The Elk Valley Elkford
Fernie Sparwood
REMEMBRANCE DAY
Red and white poppies W
earing a red poppy for Remembrance Day on November 11 has been a tradition in this country for 90 years now. The white poppy, dating from 1933, has recently resurfaced, however. It is a way to remember the civilian victims of war. The two complement each other: the red for those who died for their country, the white for the hope of peace. Did you know that behind these poppy campaigns, both past and present, are some very committed women? The adoption of the poppy as a symbol of remembrance has international origins. The first person to use it in this way was Mrs. Moina Michael, a staff member of the American Overseas YMCA, during the last year of the First World War. In April 1920 she led a stirring campaign to have the poppy recognized as the official symbol of remembrance by the American Legion. At the same time, Mrs. Anna Guérin, from France, became an ardent defender of the poppy as the symbol that would help all citizens remember those who died in the war. The efforts of these two ladies were not in vain. The first “poppy day” was held on November 11, 1921, in France as well as in Commonwealth countries. Ninety years later, the poppy is still a reminder to us all. But we must not forget that on November 11, 1933, the Women’s Cooperative Guild in the United Kingdom launched the white poppy campaign, symbolizing the will to work towards creating a world without violence, to resolve conflicts peacefully, and to remember civilian victims of war.
On Remembrance Day… We recognize the many sacrifices made by our men and women in uniform both today and throughout our nation’s history. We honour their courage and dedication, and we thank them for their contribution to our country.
Thank You, Veterans.
113 Red Cedar Drive, Sparwood * 250-425-6489
THE FREE PRESS Thursday, November 5, 2015 C7
C8
REMEMBRANCE DAY
THE FREE PRESS Thursday, November 5, 2015
Harold Travis S.S.M. & Bar: C.D.& Bar:
Harold Travis served from November 19th, 1949 until July 11th, 1972. Plus seven years in the reserves. He started as an armourer, commissioned from ranks in 1952 and studied as a Navigator; he ceased training (released) and re-enlisted in 1955 as a flight engineer. Harold flew DC 3's, Albatross, Buffalo, Argus and many others. Served in Bermuda, Belize, The Golem Heights, Britain, Ireland, France and Germany. Also Gibraltar, Cyprus and of course Canada's north country. Comox, Trenton, Winnipeg, Greenwood and Halifax. He recently had his 87th birthday, and is looking forward to many more.
Aaron Kozler
Aaron Kozler is back in Sparwood after being based in Gagetown New Brunswick serving with the Royal Canadian Regiment 2nd Battalion. He joined the military in 2008. He completed one tour in Afghanistan in 2010. He is the son of Scott Kozler of Sparwood B.C. and Cheryl Oczkowski of Coleman AB.
741B 2nd Ave, Fernie, BC (250) 423-4661 www.salvationarmy.ca
Bernie N Kabel
Bernie Kabel was born June 12, 1934 in McCreary, Manitoba. He enlisted November 1953 and retired after 25 years on December 4, 1978 from PPCLI, Shilo Manitoba. Bernie Kabel now resides in Fernie at Rocky Mountain Village.
Master Corporal Jeff Rygaard
Master Corporal Jeff Rygaard served for four years and was based in Shilo, Manitoba. Jeff Rygaard also served in Afghanistan. He graduated from Fernie Secondary Jeff Rygaard is married and has a little girl.
e W t s e L t e g For
Remembrance Day Services Wednesday, November 11
Come out and honour our veterans Sparwood, BC
Royal Canadian Legion Branch #81 10:00 a.m. Church Service, Seniors drop-in centre at 101 Pine Avenue 10:45 a.m. Parade formation after service 10:55 a.m. Cenotaph Ceremony, march back to the seniors drop-in centre, hot chocolate for the participating youth. A hot meal at Michel-Natal Branch 81, 117 Centennial Square.
Lest We Forget Elkford Remembrance Day Service 10:00 am 10:45 am 11:00 am 11:30 am
Alliance Church Service Procession to Cenotaph at District of Elkford Office Cenotaph Ceremony Refreshments at Elkford Community Conference Centre