Preserving the names and stories of our fallen
The Spectator’s Mark McNeil reports on one man’s quest to find the stories behind Burlington’s fallen. First of a three-part series.
ED KEENLEYSIDE ALWAYS wondered about the names carved in granite and cast in bronze on the Burlington cenotaph.
Who were the 82 people from the community who paid the supreme sacrifice in the First and Second World Wars?
“I noticed at Remembrance Day ceremonies they would talk about events, but would rarely if ever mention any of the individuals who were listed on the cenotaph,” he says.
“I began to wonder about the stories behind the names and I was afraid that as time went on their names would be forgotten.”
That set the 77-year-old retired history teacher on an extraordinary six-year mission interviewing descendants and collecting military records, newspaper stories and photographs. The effort culminated in a self-published, vividly-illustrated 436-page book that pieces together stories behind each name.
But even more important, his research disclosed that many of the names on the monument beside Burlington City Hall were misspelled. The City of Burlington, working with the Royal Canadian Legion in Burlington, has since spent $25,000 to fix the mistakes and the corrected cenotaph will be officially unveiled at the City of Burlington’s Remembrance Day ceremony Saturday.
IN ALL, KEENLEYSIDE found seven errors — two from the First World War that were corrected by a conservator who meticulously touched up the stone and re-engraved the granite. “The conservator was highly skilled and did a very good job,” said Angela Paparizo, the manager of arts and culture for the city.
The five problem names from the Second World War were on a bronze plaque on the bottom section of the monument. That required the entire plate to be replaced.
The stone cenotaph with a sculpture of a First World War solider on top says: “In honour of the men of Burlington and Nelson Township who served in the Great War 19141919.” It was erected in 1922 with the First World War names engraved in the granite. In 1947, the Second World War dead were added by installing the plaque.
Matt MacPherson, the president of Royal Canadian Legion Burlington Branch No. 60, says “Ed exposed some flaws with the cenotaph and I am glad that we have been able to correct them.”
MacPherson says he was “absolutely amazed” by Keenleyside’s efforts that produced “We Were Just Doing Our Bit.”
“I wouldn’t know where to start to find out all that information. It was quite a feat.”
He added that the book — published last December — is especially important as a public record of the sacrifice by people from the Burlington area. There are few veterans of the Second World War still alive and none being around from the First to tell stories themselves.
“It puts faces to the names on the stones. The book will help to keep it in the foreground so our children don’t forget about what they have done for us,” he said.
SAPPER JOSEPH PAUL Breckon is one of the Second World War fallen who is featured. A sapper is someone who works on construction projects, including building roads and bridges as well as laying or clearing mines.
Paul, as he was known, went overseas to England with the No. 1 Road Construction Company, the Royal Canadian Engineers. He was later deployed in France more than a month after the start of the Normandy invasion on June 6, 1944.
Unit members had the job of building roads and bridges, a particularly dangerous duty because they typically had to work ahead of the main Allied force with limited protection.
The landscape they walked into was frequently booby-trapped and landmine ridden from retreating Germans. Sadly, Paul stepped on one of those mines on Aug. 26, 1944, and suffered severe abdominal and thigh injuries. He died in hospital a week later. He was 24.
“He was so young. He didn’t have a chance,” says his nephew, John Breckon. “I really didn’t know much about how he died until I read the book. My father never talked about it.”
Breckon feels the book helps to get across the idea there were many dangerous jobs beyond the battlefield. Huge numbers of service people were killed doing construction, removing mines or taking part in training far away from enemy fire.
Keenleyside feels the most interesting entry in his book is Lance-Cpl. Herbert William Kearse. The First
World War soldier kept an extensive diary of his day-to-day experiences and “almost every day he put down a few words to describe the procedure of getting ready in Canada, the exciting trip across the Atlantic Ocean, the added training on the south coast of England, the heightened anticipation of what lay ahead across the English Channel, the personalities that he worked with, the food, the conditions, the trenches, the constant ‘parades’ ... the hospitals, and so much more,” Keenleyside writes.
Kearse’s last entry was from April 22, 1917, after the great Canadian victory at Vimy Ridge. He died a week later as the result of an explosion. He has no known grave, so his name is commemorated at the Vimy Memorial, one of 11,285 Canadians killed in France whose final resting place is unknown.
There is just one woman’s name on the cenotaph in Burlington; Cpl. Thelma Florence Passant. According to the book, she was a talented cipher clerk at the Canadian Women’s Army Corps in Toronto who coded and decoded military correspondence. She died of a cerebral hemorrhage and was buried with full military honours.
KEENLEYSIDE SAYS he hopes the book will encourage historians in other communities to take on similar projects of putting faces and stories to names on local cenotaphs and honour rolls. He believes the researchers will find — like he did in Burlington — there are numerous mistakes.
Hamilton’s main cenotaph at Gore Park does not list names of the fallen on the monument, as it is a much larger community. However, there is a scroll inside with the names of 1,800 service people who gave their lives in the First World War. No one knows how accurate that list is.
“This is only the tip of the iceberg,” says Keenleyside. “If my effort encourages other people to do the same thing for their community, then I think this will be more successful than I ever dreamt of.”