Cold Lake native solves mystery of British airmen
French graves of decorated duo finally identified 101 years after their deaths
COLD LAKE If it wasn’t for a former Cold Lake man, the final resting places in France of two British airmen killed in the First World War would still be unknown.
Steve St. Amant, who grew up in Cold Lake and is now a retired navy officer living in Halifax, spent hours in the archives trying to prove that two unidentified graves belonged to Lt. Leonard Cameron Kidd, a pilot, and Second Lt. Fenton Ellis Stanley Phillips, an observer.
St. Amant developed an interest in history because his parents, who still live in Cold Lake, once pulled him from school for a few weeks to take him on a tour of European cemeteries.
At that time, St. Amant remembers seeing the headstone of a 17-year-old Canadian soldier killed in one of the world wars. Because the soldier was around his age at the time, St. Amant’s interest in those lost to war was sparked.
As an adult, he was posted to Britain as a deputy Canadian Forces intelligence liaison officer. He continued the family tradition of visiting war graves and cemeteries, this time with his own two children.
He and his family like to search for unidentified headstones.
He and his wife, Niamh, began taking pictures of them, looking for those that could easily be identified — those that belonged to higher ranking officers.
St. Amant said that, of 1,000 airmen recorded as missing, maybe fewer than 100 had a rank higher than private or were noted to have won any awards. Those were the graves he wanted to identify, because he knew he could.
He and his wife, who works for the Department of National Defence, scoured over 25,000 graves to find such markers.
Since both Kidd and Phillips had earned Military Crosses — a rarity for a pilot and observer — St. Amant used a new digital database, developed by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, intended to assist historians with identifying the dead, to conclude that the two graves likely belonged to them. From there, St. Amant spent time in the archives looking for more evidence.
He successfully applied to the war graves commission to have the unknown graves rededicated with the airmen’s names.
St. Amant attended a ceremony Oct. 12 at the Caterpillar Valley Cemetery near the Somme in France, the final resting place of two Royal Flying Corps (RFC) aviators, where the graves were finally rededicated. The ceremony was exactly 101 years after their deaths.
Before St. Amant identified the graves, the headstones were each marked as “British Airman of the Great War.”
Kidd was born in 1893 and enlisted in the RFC in 1916. Operating over the Somme area, shortly before his death, he received the Military Cross for contact patrol work where he obtained valuable information under heavy fire.
He also received the British War Medal and the Victory Medal. He was 23 when he died. Second Lt. Phillips was born in 1895. He joined the RFC in 1916 and was awarded a Military Cross a few months later for gallantry and skill.
He was also awarded a British War Medal and Victory Medal.
He died at age 21.
St. Amant likewise identified an unmarked gravesite belonging to Lance Cpl. Robert King, originally from New Brunswick, who was killed Aug. 8, 1918.
Since the location of King ’s grave hadn’t been known, he was commemorated on the Vimy Memorial as one of more than 11,000 Canadians “missing, presumed dead” in France.
Now, thanks to St. Amant, King ’s final resting place is known to be in Villers-Bretonneux Military Cemetery. St. Amant continues to work on identifying other unknown grave sites.
He said it’s the right thing to do, because every lost military person deserves to have their final resting place known.