Beauty from horror: WWI poppies tour the country
Two years ago when Heather Campbell was sorting through a box of books she came across a Bible from her grandmother. Tucked inside was an envelope carrying a yellowing letter and a poppy from Flanders Fields sent during the First World War.
“When I discovered that poppy in the Bible it was like — I don’t know if this is going to sound silly — it was almost like a tap on the shoulder, a quiet yet powerful whisper from the past,” Campbell said in a recent interview.
“I was really quite shocked.”
That poppy was among the many flowers that her great-grandfather, Lt.-Col. George Stephen Cantlie, sent home with letters to his family. Cantlie served as the first commander of the 42nd Battalion of the Royal Highlanders of Canada.
The flowers are now part of a touring exhibit called War Flowers that is on display at the Château Ramezay Historic Site and Museum of Montreal until early January. It will then move to Edmonton.
“This exhibit tells stories in a way that balances hope and love with reality, reaching across continents,” said Campbell, who is a registered nurse in Toronto.
Cantlie enlisted when he was 48 years old in 1915. He fought in battles in Belgium and France.
He sent his wife and one of his five children flowers he picked from the battlefield (and later pressed in a book) with his letters.
The letters to his baby daughter Celia were only a few words long.
In one dated July 4, 1916, he wrote: “Dear Wee Celia: With much love from Daddy. At the front Flanders. 1916.” Folded inside is a twig with red poppies.
Another letter dated “Flanders, At the Front. 28.6.16,” contains daisies. “Dear Wee Celia,” it reads. “From the trenches and shell holes with much love from Daddy.”
Campbell said the letters and flowers are “probably a translatable story into any time of war, any type of adversity.”
“They still can find beauty amidst things that are pretty horrific, and we should celebrate that and remember that. It’s really symbolism, isn’t it?”
Her mother described Cantlie as kind and gentle. He died aged 89 on Aug. 30, 1956, when Campbell was about two years old.
Campbell said her aunt recognized the historical significance of the letters she inherited and put the exhibition into motion.
Viveka Melki, the curator of War Flowers, said she was touched by the simplicity of the letters.
“This man sends these letters even in the darkest of times. He sends them to his daughter as a symbol of beauty amongst darkness,” she said.
“He doesn’t write an extensive letter, but he writes what’s essential — I love you.”