Exactly a century later, Edmonton remembers
It was 2 a.m. on Nov. 11, 1918, when the newswire message arrived in the office of the Edmonton Bulletin: “Armistice signed.”
Soon, car horns were blaring, firefighters sounded sirens and joyful people streamed into the streets, lighting a bonfire at Jasper Avenue and 101 Street downtown.
On Sunday afternoon, volunteers and performers at Armistice 100: A Tribute marked a century since the First World War ended. Part memorial tribute, part historical re-enactment, the event revisited Edmonton’s contributions to The Great War and how it shaped the city’s history.
Participants sported period outfits, including red, white and blue regimental uniforms, members of Lord Strathcona’s Mounted Troop trotted in and a “wounded” soldier wearing fatigues hobbled around with a crutch.
In the centre of Capital Plaza on the legislature grounds, organizers used banners and scaffolding to create a replica of the Menin Gate Memorial to the Missing, which stands in Ypres, Belgium.
A musician played the Mons Bugle — the same instrument that sounded in Belgium when the Allies signed the armistice.
Narrator Neil Kuefler walked the hundreds of spectators gathered on the sunny but chilly afternoon through Edmonton men’s enthusiasm to enlist when war was declared, the stagnation it caused in the growth of the new city, and the exhausted soldiers’ return home in 1919 to a crowd of 30,000 revellers.
Nearly one-quarter of Albertans joined the war effort, and one in eight of them would never come back.
“Many of the people who did come home, they never recovered,” Lt.- Gov. Lois Mitchell said. “They never truly recovered from the horrors on the front lines. Those brave, brave Albertans and Canadians were left to struggle with the terrible physical and mental scars for the rest of their lives.”
Several leaders took the podium to express gratitude to the dead, the surviving veterans, and those currently serving in the military.
“We must never forget that if not for these selfless Canadians, we might not enjoy the rights and the freedoms that we’re so privileged to have today,” MLA Nicole Goehring said.
Although he hopes it never happens again, Brig. Gen. Trevor Cadieu, commander of the 3rd Canadian Division, said if called upon, the military is ready.
Earlier on Sunday, an annual tradition came to life at the Butterdome, where women, men and children of many stripes marched around the indoor track to music performed by the Salvation Army Edmonton Temple and Calgary Glenmore bands.
Hundreds of spectators looked on as members of the Air Force, Army, Navy, veterans, police, firefighters, scouts, Girl Guides and others stood at attention while J’lyn Nye, honorary colonel of 408 Tactical Helicopter Squadron, reviewed Canada’s horrifying First World War.
Armistice Day on Nov. 11, 1918 was a turning point for the country, she said.
“For the first time, Canada stood on the international stage as an independent nation. We achieved that status due to the courage and sacrifice of Canadians who fought in the First World War.”
During the ceremony, attendee Betty Duncan was thinking about her husband, who served in the Second World War, her dad, who was in the Canadian Air Force, and several other uncles and a grandfather who were in the military.
She came “to say thank you, for what these guys do, and what they’re going through,” she said.
The solemn trumpeting of the Last Post, two moments of silence, lament on the bagpipes, readings and a prayer were followed by government and military leaders laying wreaths before a cenotaph.
Among those laying wreaths was Memorial Cross recipient Lisa Schamehorn-Eades and her two daughters. Their father and husband, Sgt. Shawn Eades, died Aug. 20, 2008, on his third tour in Afghanistan.
Eades, who was with No. 1 Combat Engineer Regiment in Edmonton, died alongside fellow combat engineers Cpl. Dustin Wasden and Sapper Stephan Stock when a roadside bomb detonated near their armoured vehicle in southern Afghanistan.