2022 Remembrance Day section - Wellington Advertiser

Remem ance Day

By Jordan Snobelen

ABOYNE - When nurse Alice Hindley boarded the S.S. Adriatic in Halifax on May 19, 1916, she couldn’t have known what lay in store on the other side of the Atlantic.

It’s true that nearly two years into the First World War, the allure of battle had since been drenched in the blood of millions of lives that had been wiped from the Earth. But Alice still couldn’t have prepared for what she would see in England, and later in France, not far from the Western Front.

The nursing profession was in its infancy. Nurses accounted for about two per cent of the female workforce in Canada in 1911, according to Canada’s fifth census. The war provided thou sands of nurses short on job prospects a way to make money and answer a gripping sense of duty.

So, at 32 years old, unmarried, and educated at the Hamilton General Hospital Training School, Alice Eva Hindley left her job at Scott Hospital in Saskatchewan and enlisted as a nursing sister in the First World War, following in the spirit of Florence Nightingale, who died just four years before Britain declared war on the German Empire, and is widely credited

for laying the foundations of modern nursing.

Nursing in war was an even newer concept at the time. Nightingale trained nurses and cared for soldiers in Constantinople, during the Crimean War, proving nurses’ usefulness to the wounded.

When war broke out in 1914, Canada, woefully ill-prepared militarily and on the medical front, was dragged into the fray only having used nurses for the first time in battle during the Boer War in 1899.

The same year, the Militia Medical Service was formed and later absorbed into the Canadian Army Medical Corps in 1904, with only five permanent nurs es.

The first contingent of 100 nurses was dispatched from across Canada to England in 1914. By the end of the war, at least 2,411 Canadian women had served overseas as nursing sisters.

***

Over a century later, on Oct. 26, Alice’s relatives, some who have never met before, are gathered in a textile storage room at the Wellington County Museum and Archives (WCMA).

Alice’s nursing uniform, a lightblue cotton dress with a white apron and two First Lieutenant’s stars affixed at the shoulders, is cleaned

and mounted for display. The complete uniform, with a white veil worn while on duty, led to the nurses being known as “bluebirds” by soldiers.

Alice’s uniform has two small rips on the right sleeve, and accompanying straps and cuffs are yellowed with age.

Next to the dress, is a navy-blue coat with golden buttons.

Rudimentary tools of the trade, including scalpels, scissors, forceps, and an old thermometer, have been laid out and organized neatly in a box.

In other boxes are medals, clasps and buttons, all displayed for the roughly 14 family members who dis cuss the memorabilia and their memo ries of “Aunt Allie,” as she was affec tionately known.

Before arriving here, the instru ments had been confined to a desk drawer, out of sight and out of mind, says Cathy Parr Hughes, who received the items from her mother.

As for Alice’s uniform, also in Hughes’ care, it was used as a Halloween costume on more than one occasion, she admitted.

“It’s a miracle it survived,” she remarked.

Norma Hindley can be credited for the gathering and reuniting of Alice’s wartime wares.

Honouring our Hero

A couple of days after a phone call for a quote, we met the most incredible man! Not only did he become our customer but now a cherished friend.

President Troy Mason stated “I am so glad to have met such an honourable man. Thank you Alfred, for the opportunity to work with you. It’s a pleasure and honour to listen to your experiences, knowledge and zest for life!”

Alfred Grubb of Teeswater, a second World War veteran is now 101 years old.

Alfred Grubb

Pictured above Canadian Flat Roofng

President Troy Mason and Second World War Vet, 100 year old Alfred Grubb

Nursing Sister Alice Hindley. Courtesy of WCMA

By Kelly Waterhouse

ABOYNE – With the start of November comes a marker of remem brance that has become an important tradition on the sprawling lawn of the Wellington County Museum and Archives, (WCMA).

The We Will Remember Them dis play places over 500 memorial markers, each commemorating one of Wellington County’s fallen, from the First World War to Afghanistan.

The visual impact is powerful and staff at the museum hope it will encour age people to tour the display and take the time to read the names and learn their stories.

Kyle Smith, WCMA activity pro grammer, hopes the display gives visi tors perspective into the scope of the loss and the impact it would have had on local communities at the time.

“We’re a small community and in 1914 we were even smaller than that,” Smith said.

“And to see, just for WWI, you see so many names that are on there, and they’re all separated by townships, like Arthur, Fergus and whatnot, and just the amount, and it’s not wounded … It’s the war dead from all those tiny little places. And it’s in just four years.

“It’s overwhelming to see them all in one place,” he adds.

“It’s one thing to read a book, or read statistics, but when you see it staring you in the face, it’s a whole different thing.”

The annual display began in 2014, part of the Remembrance events for the 100th anniversary of the First World War.

“It expands every year. We do more research,” Smith said, estimating the current marker count is approximately 535. “Every year we find new names, family members come forward. So, we keep adding people.”

Telling the story behind each of the markers is a corresponding online data base – Wellington County Remembers: Commemorating Our Fallen – that com piles research such as personal letters, attestation papers, service records and, where possible, images of the soldiers.

Archivist Karen Wagner explains,

“The database is really an evolution of the resources we’ve been putting togeth er over a number of years relating to the military history of Wellington County.”

She explains the database began around 2002 with the permanent First World War exhibit, Far from Home: A Soldier’s Life at the Front, which includes a bulkhead in the gallery list ing the names of the soldiers on ceno taphs across Wellington County.

“Everyone who was listed on the cenotaph either died during the war, or within a few years after the war due to illness or injury as a result of the war,” Wagner said.

“There is only one woman in the database, a nurse named Alice Cook from Mount Forest.”

It was the creation of the memo rial marker display that spurred the initiative to delve further into the his tory of these individual soldiers. As that research continued to evolve, so too did the database.

“I know one of the challenges for even putting the names on that bulk head of all the individuals who are on the Cenotaph, was answering questions about why some individuals were listed on more than one cenotaph,” Wagner explained, noting in some cases, it was due to family connection in the area, or perhaps they had lived in several communities at different times in their lives.

“If you look at our database, we list the cemetery that they are buried in, and so many of them are overseas,” Wagner said.

“So I think it was very important for their communities to create the ceno taph memorials so that their family members would have a place to go to honour and remember them.”

Trying to include a photo with each soldier turned out to be “one of our big gest challenges,” Wagner said.

“It was interesting to see how many during the First World War had pho tos in the local newspapers. And that’s where we got a lot of images.”

The We Will Remember Them display serves as the backdrop for two impor tant events: the remembrance ceremo ny on Nov. 3 and the candle light vigil on Nov. 10.

The Nov. 3 event has passed but on Nov. 10, a candle lighting service welcomes the community to gather at dusk to place a candle at the markers in tribute to the fallen.

“This is my favourite of all the ser vices ... because it’s so informal,” Smith said, noting the event draws groups like Cub Scouts, families, seniors, and veter ans who enjoy the experience of reading the names of the soldiers, of honouring them with a candle, and seeing the dis play glow as night falls.

“It’s so nice, and we get such a great cross section of everybody.”

The event is open to everyone and begins at 5:30pm. Candles are provided by the museum. Those candles remain lit until Nov. 12.

Both events help Smith encourage visitors to learn more about the stories behind each name on the markers by making a personal connection to them.

“What I tell everybody to do in my remarks is to find one person either in the database or on the lawn, and if he’s got the name of your son, or he’s from your town, or shares your birthday … it doesn’t have to be a relative, or anything like that, but find one of them and keep them in your thoughts,” Smith said.

“If you use the database, you can learn about them. You can learn about how they died and what happened to them.”

Smith hopes the recommendation to connect the display and database together will bring local history to life.

“It’s just a way of making something that’s so big and so overwhelming, a little bit smaller,” he said.

“And I think that’s the beauty of the display. It seems so big, but then it’s small. It’s like one individual person each time, and then the database too, it’s this huge thing, but you can break it down to a really small level and bring it home a little bit easier.”

Wagner said there is much interest to include veterans who returned from the Second World War and have since passed.

It is a future goal for the museum to commemorate them, Wagner said.

The online database can be found at wellington.ca.

Church members expand Poppy Project

By Patrick Raftis

ELORA –Members of St. John Anglican Church have expanded the Poppy Project initiated by the church last year.

The project began at the Elora church in 2021 to com memorate the 100th anni versary of the adoption of the poppy as symbol of Remembrance.

Last year about 100 peo ple participated in creating banners made of more than 7,000 hand-knitted or cro cheted poppies to hang on the church for Remembrance Day. This year the project has expanded, with an additional 3,000 poppies, and banners have been hung on the local library, several businesses and other locations around town.

When the project first began, church members were holding meetings via Zoom due to the COVID-19 pandem ic.

“That was very difficult for us to do because there was no human contact,” notes church member Barbara Dunsmore.

Church Rector Paul Walker had a friend in Cambridge where they were doing a similar project with poppies, Dunsmore explained.

“He started talking about these poppies and we thought … ‘How difficult can it be to knit or crochet a few poppies?’ We had set a goal of 1,500. That turned into 7,000. So, from there, it just expanded.”

As COVID restrictions lift ed, Dunsmore said the project became a unifying force for church members.

“People that had knit pop pies at home, or crocheted

them, were able then to come into the church … and start mounting them. So it was like a very joyous reunion … it was what everybody needed at that time for sure,” she stated.

“And then to see them up, it was just awe inspiring … and the outreach to the com munity, it was just amazing,” she added.

In addition to local resi dents, people have come from considerable distances to see the display.

“We’re thrilled to have it done up this way. And it has become a real sort of pilgrim age site for people to visit and engage with some act of remembrance and peace,” said Walker.

In some cases, the poppies also came from beyond local borders and, in one case, well beyond.

Dunsmore said a local res ident dropped off a box of pop pies made by her daughter, who lives in Australia.

“She had read about it in the Wellington Advertiser - she reads it online - she decided that she would submit some poppies so she then mailed

them to her mother and her mother dropped them off. She had grown up in Elora,” Dunsmore notes.

In addition to honouring war veterans, the 2022 ban ners also contain a special recognition of the passing of Queen Elizabeth II earlier this year.

“Someone had knit a black poppy with a red center just after the Queen died and I looked at it and I thought ‘What if we were to put those

on the banners, just for this year, just in remembrance of the Queen dying,” she explained.

Dunsmore said the group plans to keep the Poppy Project going indefinitely.

“We’ll keep creating poppy banners as long as people are interested in doing so,” she said.

“We’re very blessed to have this … it’s a little mir acle for us, it really is,” she added.

Poppy Project – St. John Anglican Church in Elora has been decorated with poppy banners through a proj ect run by local church members. Banners containing more than 10,000 hand knitted or crocheted poppies have been hung on the church and other locations around town. Photo by Pam Gradwell

Banner builders – St. John Anglican Church members were busy putting Poppy Project banners together during a gathering at the church on Oct. 23. From left: Nancy Knudstrup, Sylvia Arthur and Jane Anne Murray. Photo by Patrick Raftis

First World War uniform, medals reunited at Wellington County Museum

Recently retired, she found herself cleaning up around the house when she stumbled upon some old pho tographs without names or dates on the back.

She started an email chain to find information about the Hindleys.

“Everybody kind of chimed in,” Norma said, which led to responses from Cathy, who had the uniform and instruments, and Peter Hindley, who had a collection of Alice’s medals in a drawer.

“We made some discov eries, there’s lots of stories that get passed around, and I think that’s part of the fun, and if we don’t retain them now the next generation isn’t even going to know,” Cathy said.

She reached out to the museum, enquiring if the county would be interested in having the items.

“Obviously I was interest ed,” museum curator Hailey Johnston said. “It very much out-of-the-blue came to us, and I was just thrilled that it did.”

Conservator Emily Benedict cleaned, mounted, and assembled the items, and curatorial assistant Amy Dunlop gathered additional research on the items, cata logued them, and created records which can be viewed online.

The museum’s role, Dunlop said, is to highlight stories of people and places in the community through col lections such as this.

In fact, little is known about Alice’s story overseas. Lore has been handed down, but there are no letters saved and knowledge comes secondhand.

The only true, documen tary evidence comes from military service records held by Library and Archives Canada.

***

The S.S. Adriatic docked in England on May 30, 1916.

Alice was assigned to the No. 8 Stationary Hospital—a misnomer for the unit as they were neither stationary, nor a hospital—and frequently relocated around France, set ting up and tearing down can vas, tented wards and beds for their patients as they went.

Alice began working at the Moore Barracks, one of five hospital units located at the Shorncliffe Army Camp in Kent, England.

In 1917, the No. 8 Stationary Hospital nursing sisters—their nursing ranks fluctuating between 28 and 43 throughout the war—crossed the English Channel into France.

When a soldier was injured on the front lines, a “field ambulance” unit would evacuate them to a casualty

clearing station. From there, they might end up at a gen eral hospital, or a stationary hospital, where nurses would clean and bandage wounds, provide tetanus shots and clean clothing, and monitor the men’s condition.

Infection was rampant in the unsanitary muck and mire of the trenches, an influenza pandemic swept through Europe in 1918, and new weaponry and heinous forms of warfare led to cata strophic injuries from shrap nel wounds and mustard gas attacks—all of which nurses didn’t have the skills and experience to deal with.

Antibiotics weren’t around and advancements in medical techniques weren’t yet born by the Second World War.

Nurses also had to respond to horrifying psychological trauma, presenting in sol diers through night terrors, bedwetting and suicide.

Despite nurses’ limita tions, patients streamed in from the fields by the thou sands, often overwhelming nursing staff and quickly pushing the make-do hospi tals to capacity.

Stationary hospitals started out with 200 beds before increasing capacity to between 400 and 650 beds by 1915, and at one location, over 1,000.

By 1918, Canada operated

16 general hospitals, 10 stationary hospitals, and four casualty clearing sta tions.

In November that year, nurses from the No. 8 Stationary Hospital were sent to other Canadian hospitals. Alice was attached to No. 1, 13 and 15 Canadian General Hospitals which specialized in treating jaw, ear, nose and throat, and fracture injuries.

On Nov. 11, 1918 an armi stice was signed bringing an end to the war, but nurses continued providing care, including to repatriated British soldiers and German prisoners of war.

Nearly three years after enlisting, Alice and the remainder of the No. 8 Stationary Hospital returned to Canada on the S.S. Scotian on Feb. 19, 1919.

From 1916 to 1919, Alice’s unit had travelled from England to Boulogne-surMer, Camiers, Charmes, Rouen, and finally, Dunkirk.

It’s unknown how many men Alice would have cared for during her time overseas, but government records show the unit treated 3,226 patients in England, and another 7,924 in France, totalling 11,152 patients.

Alice was one of 446 Canadian nursing members awarded the Associate Royal

UNIFORM » 19

When she returned to Canada, Alice remained in military ranks, working at St. Andrews Military and Toronto Dominion Orthopedic hospitals in 1920 before leaving in August that year and earning a diploma in public health and social welfare.

She drove across modern-day Halton and Peel Region and Wellington, Perth,

Huron, and Grey counties while work ing as an investigator for mothers receiving government social assistance.

The work, a family history booklet states, “suited her adventurous, out-ofdoors nature.”

Travelling became an active part of her life and she embarked across Scotland, England, France, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, Holland, Belgium and Austria in 1930.

In 1936, she was part of the Pilgrimage to Vimy for the dedication of the Canadian National Vimy Memorial in France. Her cousin, George Cecil

Alice, right, seen with her brother, Captain George Joseph Hindley, who was attached to the 204th Battalion.

Thomas, who also served in the war, joined her.

Later, she visited the west and east coasts of the Uniteds States and, in 1951, Mexico.

Peter says Alice loved to drive, and loved nature.

He remembers travelling with her to the Cartwright Waterfall where she would point out all the different birds. She could hold her own fishing and horseback riding too.

In her 70s, Alice bought a 1957 Chevy in canary yellow, and even at that age wasn’t afraid to push the pedal.

Peter described her as a leader, some one who was friendly and approachable and loved by her family.

“Everyone thought the world of aunt Alice,” he said. “She was the one who made life fun.”

Each Christmas, she brought party poppers and hats to wear, Peter said of his fondest memory of “Aunt Allie.”

Alice died in 1968, at age 84, and is buried in the Johnson-Eramosa Union Cemetery in Guelph/Eramosa.

She rarely, if ever, spoke about her experiences during the Great War.

Alice, photo graphed on the S.S. Antonia in 1936 on the Vimy Pilgrimage to France.

“She kept that pretty quiet,” Peter said.

Instead, she left behind memories of happy times and her worldly travels.

Alice spent the remainder of her life driving the roads of Wellington County, enjoying nature, and looking after her nieces and nephews who were never far.

“Not only did she serve her country, but she was well-loved by her family,” Peter said.

Cathy hopes by donating Alice’s belongings to the museum, they will be preserved and highlight the role women played in the war.

“That part of history didn’t get writ ten and it needs to be,” she said. “It needs to be shared.”

The Associate Royal Red Cross, awarded to Alice Hindley.

Photo by G. Cecil Thomas

Alice’s uniform.

Veterans banners installed in Hillsburgh

By Joanne Shuttleworth

HILLSBURGH

- Banners

bearing the names and photos of servicemen from Hillsburgh and area, who fought and died in the First and Second World Wars, have been mounted outside the Hillsburgh Community Centre.

The project was the initiative of the Let’s Get Hillsburgh Growing commit tee, in partnership with the Town of Erin and the Erin

Legion.

“I was aware of the Legion doing banners in the Village of Erin at the ceno taph and had the idea to do it in Hillsburgh,” said Jeff Duncan, a county councillor for Erin and member of the Let’s Get Hillsburgh Growing committee.

“Erin only has one ceno taph and it has the names of folks from Erin. There is no cenotaph or visible reminder in Hillsburgh.”

Fourteen individuals

Lest We For get Lest We Forget

from Hillsburgh and area fought and died in the two wars, and the committee felt they should be honoured by name, Duncan said.

Former Erin resident Doug Kirkwood, who is still involved with the Erin Legion, had already done the heavy lifting on the project, Duncan said, when he researched his book, We Will Remember Them: the Men and Women of Erin and District.

Kirkwood, on behalf of the Erin Legion, also applied for a grant from the town, which was approved, and coordinat ed with the Royal Canadian Legion Dominion Command for permission to hang the banners.

The $2,500 grant from the town will cover about 90 per cent of the cost of the ban ners, brackets and installa tion, Duncan said.

There are seven banners, each featuring two service men, one on each side.

They feature the name, dates, unit, where they are buried and a photo if one is available.

Duncan said the banners will be up for about three weeks and should last ten years.

Duncan said it’s a fitting tribute to those who gave their lives in the war.

“They’ll be prominently displayed, and they should be,” he said.

Senator Rob Black www.robblack.ca Robert.Black@sen.parl.gc.ca

Front and back - These banners, featuring service people from the Hillsburgh area who died in the First or Second World Wars, have been hung in Hillsburgh for Remembrance Day. The project was the idea of the Let’s Get Hillsburgh Growing commit tee with support from the Town of Erin and the Erin Legion. They were manufactured by Kennedy Flags in Erin and installed by Rae’s Neon of Cedar Valley that made the time on a tight schedule to get them installed before Remembrance Day. There are seven banners with a differ ent serviceman featured on each side.

Submitted photos

St. Mary Catholic School staff ensure students learn to commemorate, respect Remembrance Day

By Kelly Waterhouse

ELORA – On the wall, in the hallway just a short dis tance through the front door of St. Mary Catholic School in Elora, a cut-out of a solider is pasted to the wall.

His shape is filled in with handmade red poppies created by students at the school, representing honour and respect for the sacrifice of veterans.

It’s an important tra dition for the school’s Remembrance Day activities.

“We’ve used this soldier poster for years, after the junior kindergarten’s deco rated it one year. He’s a very tall soldier. Everybody put a poppy on him, and it’s just beautiful to see,” said educational assistant Vicky Jensen-Beirnes.

“We have him up every year in the hallway.”

Jensen-Beirnes is one of the leaders of the school’s Remembrance Day events alongside Erin Burt, a Grade 5/6 teacher. They use the symbol of the poppy as a cre ative teaching tool each year.

“I’ll give every class a poppy design to do, so they can make a copy of it and dec orate it however they want to,” Jensen-Beirnes said.

“Teachers are really cre ative so that the students make poppies out of every thing. You’ll see them made of egg cartons, papier mache,

everything.”

Principal Justin DiLoreto enjoys seeing the November transformation, noting the décor begins the day after Halloween. He cred its Jensen-Beirnes with the enthusiasm to get things in motion.

“There’s always been a huge number of displays that she set up regarding the poppies and some soldiers stuff and paraphernalia. Lest We Forget is the theme. You won’t be able to miss it in our school. It’s a big

theme obviously throughout November,” DiLoreto said.

Jensen-Beirnes noted teaching future generations to respect the sacrifice of vet erans is a personal mission for her, having grown up in the shadow of that era – par ticularly with Second World War veterans.

“It’s really, really, impor tant to me, because I remem ber some of the older people, and I remember some of the struggles they faced when the war was over. I remember

Poppies galore – St. Mary Catholic School Grade 1 students in the class of Mrs. Davy, left, took time to pose with soldier artwork on the hallway outside their classroom. The students decorated the area with handmade poppies too. Vicky Jensen-Beirnes, right, sets up the display ever year and is one of the leads for the school’s Remembrance Day assembly.

Photo by Kelly Waterhouse

Remembrance starts with poppies and ends with respect at St. Mary’s school

seeing them struggle and I don’t want them to be forgotten. That’s basically why I do it,” said JensenBeirnes.

Her husband was in the Canadian Armed Forces for 30 years and had some interesting arti facts she could bring to decorate the school for Remembrance Day.

“I’m an Elora Legion mem ber, have been for approximately 35 years, so I also could get the Legion members to come in their uniforms," she said. “You know, that felt more real, and I wanted it to feel more real.”

This year the Remembrance Day service at the school and at the Elora cenotaph coincide, so the school won’t have Legion members in attendance.

“The grade eights are going to the cenotaph on Friday, which is really nice. They get to see it and experience it,” Jensen-Beirnes said.

She said the week leading up to Remembrance Day, students of all ages were handed lesson booklets on the importance of Nov. 11, which she hopes will correlate with the lessons of the art projects.

“I hope that helps them under stand a little bit more when they hear about it. I’m hoping they remember some of it,” JensenBeirnes said of the younger stu dents.

She strives to make the Remembrance experience visually stimulating, to encourage students to become involved and have an experience linked to the event.

“Even the little kids, at least if they can colour or do a poppy, or look at it, I wanted them to have something more visual, so that’s why I started,” she said.

“Even if a JK student coloured a picture of a poppy and you asked them about it, they’d know what it is. So that’s what had me do it.”

DiLoreto has been at the school for two years and is happy this year’s Remembrance Day assembly will be in-person with the entire school.

“During my time here we did our celebration virtually because it’s the only way that we could, but we’re super excited and happy that we can meet as community again, and have our teacher leads that are really passionate about

Remembrance Day and take part in the actual organizing of the cer emony. So, it’s going to be a nice opportunity for them to do so,” DiLoreto said.

Jensen-Beirnes shares his enthusiasm.

“This year we are going to have the grade ones come up and sing a song. The teachers are organizing that,” she said. “And we are having it live which is good; in the gym which is exciting.”

Together with Burt, she said they organize some remembrance vid eos, recite the poem In Flanders Fields, and do things to keep the assembly fresh each year.

Of course, prayer is an impor tant part of the Catholic school’s daily routine, and on Nov. 11, it will be too.

“We’re lucky because of this particular ceremony, we have our choir that are going to sing some songs for us that are in that theme, in that light,” DiLoretto said.

He acknowledges it is a chal

lenge to have students make a con nection to veterans, as so many of local veterans are gone, and stu dents never had the opportunity to meet them – but that just makes the assembly’s messaging even more important.

“It’s always been a delicate bal ance with our students to make sure that they understand the impor tance of the day without being over the top and making sure that they feel comfortable about the message, so it’s really about the balance,” DiLoreto said.

“I think what they do under stand is there is a respect owed to a generation that came before us that had to experience a lot of sacrifice and that’s the message that they get without fully understanding, because how could they?”

DiLoreto added, “But they cer tainly do have that understanding that the respect is the reason why we wear a poppy.

“Thinking of things like the war in Ukraine for example, they know that there’s something called a war and they know that people have to fight and I think they understand that message, but they never really,

it’s never really impacted their life here in Canada.

“But that wasn’t always the case. There was a time where people had to go to battle and had to fight. I think that’s the most salient point for them to understand and not take for granted.”

From respecting the moment of silence and wearing a poppy to the other traditions that make the assembly special, DiLoretto said staff efforts bring home a positive message of gratitude to the students for the veterans.

“The teachers at our school do a really good job of making sure that the students understand that there were people that sacrificed a lot for us to have the life that we have here in Canada,” he said.

“And that’s really the message that is brought home ... to the kids, so they know that there were some really valiant soldiers … that fought hard so that we can have our free dom.”

He added, “I think the message has always been the same: to hon our those that came before us and honour the sacrifices that they’ve made for our freedom.”

They

War is a terrible thing, but it reminds us how fortunate we are when our loved ones are at home safe and sound. We join the rest of the community in wishing our troops safe deployment and we thank those veterans who have gone before us to ensure our freedom.

Proudly serving Centre Wellington and Waterloo with three newly renovated and comfortable locations. Fergus - Elora - Waterloo 519.843.3100 | 519.846.5352

OPINION: Remembrance – a legacy for today

By Robert Stubbings

FERGUS – This week we mark the 103rd commemora tion of Remembrance Day in Canada.

At 11am on Nov. 11, the solemn ceremony we observe is meant as a tribute to those who lost their lives in the service of our country.

“Thank you for your ser vice,” is silently whispered by many.

The Canadian public strongly identifies the Legion with all of the rituals of Remembrance – the wearing of the red poppy, the colour guard, the orations and prayers, the two minutes of silent reflection, the playing of the Last Post and the lay ing of wreaths.

Remembrance is about remembering our veterans’ sacrifice and honouring their service and, appropriately, tends to focus on grief.

ening list of names read, of the increasing number of wreaths laid.

Time has taken its toll on our World War veterans. A legacy is anything given to you from an ancestor and is most valuable to the recipi ent when there is a personal connection and meaning.

Have the World War gen erations left us a legacy?

Harry Lauder, a Scottish minstrel popular during both of the World Wars, wrote: “If we all look back on the his tory of the past, we can just tell where we are.”

Our awareness of Remembrance is grounded in the aftermath of the First World War. The impact on humanity of this global conflict can be seen in the response writers, sculptors and artists gave to immortal izing its significance.

The designation “Great War” (the numerical “First”

the appalling conflict.

Rudyard Kipling’s To our Glorious Dead and Lest We Forget gave reverence to the fallen. The vision and efforts of Fabian Ware to respect fully inter the dead gave rise to the Commonwealth War Graves Commission which has been called The Empires of the Dead.

Here at home, to prevent the memory of their fallen sons from being lost, com munities across the nation erected local war memorials.

John McCrae’s poem gave all Canadians the torch for Remembrance. Walter Allward’s Vimy Memorial in France hallmarks Canada’s presence for all poster ity. Vernon March’s The Response, depicting fighting men from the Great War, became Canada’s National War Memorial.

The superlative was strived for in all cases. After all, it was supposed to be the “war to end all wars”.

And then the Second

World War, considered by some as a continuance of WWI only interrupted by a period of exhaustion called “peace”, erupted.

As their fathers had done in the previous generation, sons and daughters stepped up for military service, driv en by a clear sense of moral certainty and belief in the principles for which they fought.

Canada would not have achieved the global recogni tion it did without them, for at the onset of both World Wars our country was not prepared. We had the most meagre of professional armies such that by the time our forces were in full opera tion they, for all intents and purposes, consisted of citizen soldiers.

Between the two World Wars, 1.75 million Canadians put on the uniform, from which over 100,000 were killed and close to a quarter of a million were wounded.

From a country with less

than eight million citizens in the First and approximately 12 million during the Second, Canada’s butcher bill from the World Wars cannot be easily forgotten.

It is an indelible number of our ancestors to remem ber for their service and sacrifice. The memory of Remembrance is confirmed for all time.

But let us look past the numbers and try to put our selves in their place. At the beginning of both wars a pivotal concern had to be: can civilians, however will ing, brave and trained, be made in a few months the equals of professional sol diers, inspired veterans who in both wars swarmed in unbridled victory across all of Europe?

It was a formidable ques tion, but of course we know the answer. The Canadians in both wars were, when the smoke cleared, quite able to defeat all aggressors.

Military strategists will

correctly speak of discipline, morale and the officer/other rank relationship and how these knitted elements were necessary for military suc cess. There was something else though.

Their measureless force of spirit to support each other, their unwritten code to not let down their broth ers, of self-sacrifice and the unwavering sense of purpose of these ordinary Canadians gave indisputable proof they had the root of the matter in them. Simply put, they all “did their bit.”

At the same time we must remind ourselves that Canadians on this side of the Atlantic were also exposed to the trials and testing of both World Wars.

Everyone was touched by the wars, particularly those in homes where a family member had given their life or was permanently disabled.

To speak of victory rings hollow to widows and

orphans facing a precarious future in the absence of a husband or father. Upheaval became the daily norm for these people who endured when the world was at war.

Supply chain disruptions, economic chaos, inflam matory media, self-inter est groups, governments

stretched beyond their capa bility.

Are we talking 1916, 1943 or 2022? The past and the present are in the room together. World War truly means Armageddon. It is merciless, arbitrary, person al, repulsive and existential.

War is also the great leveler of society. It has no regard for a person’s social status, wealth, education, skin colour, native tongue, faith, age, gender or any other parameter by which humans measure and cat egorize themselves. All are equally annihilated.

But instead of perseverat ing on war itself, we need to focus on the human partici pants in war – our ancestors. Many families hold dear the wartime photographs of their parents, grandparents and great grandparents in their army, navy or air force dress uniforms.

These heirlooms give proof of their contribution, but should also remind us of what they did, of what they endured. The end of the war was not the end of their story.

When the guns of the First World War went silent, the transition from military back to civilian life was difficult for those who had served, pri marily because they had been away from home for so many years

Wartime governmen tal propaganda had prom ised veterans a “land fit for heroes,” but the fragile Canadian economy could not support all of these now unemployed soldiers.

Veterans, mobilized by the Legion, lobbied for government support and received a progressive policy of pensions and land grants. But not all benefited equally, and some were abandoned to hospitals or left to the care of loved ones.

Nevertheless, most vet erans moved on and rebuilt

their lives after the war.

This was repeated after the end of the Second World War, when again while some survivors struggled with their war experiences others embraced them and moved on, privately carrying within themselves the lasting impact of the war. But they did move on and got on with living.

Think back on your own life experiences so far, and in particular those that have had a far-reaching impact on your life and contrib uted to who you are today. Ultimately, we are all guided by our own life experiences whether they be narrow or broadly endured. So too were these remarkable members of the war generations.

Regardless of their service branch, when our veterans came home they continued to embrace the comrade ship, a term born of endear ment and common sacrifice, which they forged in battle and which sustained them through years of hardship.

Across the country our citizenry became part of a collective whole as people identified with their neigh bour’s suffering, pain and loss because they had expe rienced the same. They could also share in their mutual joy and relief with wars’ end.

This mutual experience remained with them for the rest of their lives, express ing itself through their sense of community. What they became as Canadians contin ued as part of their normal, daily existence.

The true history of war, specifically the experiences and stories of the individu als involved, is intensely per sonal.

Their stories need to be told and passed on because they create in our minds a real person, a genuine Canadian.

The sum total of their experiences holds the mes

sage these Canadians have to convey to us and that mes sage is timeless. Their col lective, horrible reality bore fruit in a clearer vision for their future and gave voice to our nation.

When you enter the Canadian War Museum you read the following: “This is your legacy. It is the memory and evidence of how war has affected your life in Canada today. It is preserved here so you can share it and remem ber.”

Here lies the opportunity for Canadians to learn of the legacy left to us by our war veterans. The war and postwar stories of our ancestors, not only on the battlefields, but also in homes touched by the wars, is an integral ele ment of our Canadian heri tage.

Yet, while people may leave the Canadian War Museum somewhat more connected with this legacy, the truth is many Canadians never visit 1 Vimy Place.

Fortunately, we have numerous local historical preserves where these memo ries and stories can be heard again. Regimental headquar ters, county museums and Legion branches all have a part to play. Listen to their representatives recount their tale; hear their pride; feel their passion.

In your mind’s eye put yourself into the story, remembering that most of the combatants were young and inexperienced. Think about how you would have reacted faced with the same circum stances.

Memorize their name; you have just connected with a veteran.

These amazing Canadians did not do what they did to impress us today, but per haps they can inspire.

We can look to them to find direction for a better today, a better tomorrow.