‘We do this for our veterans’
People pay respects to veterans and the fallen of war
The rustling of leaves kicked up by a slight breeze off of Lake Erie was the only noise heard in H.H. Knoll Lakeview Park Sunday morning during a moment of silence that seemed to swell past the usual two minutes at Remembrance Day ceremonies.
It may have been a reaction to the gravity of this year’s ceremony, marking 100 years of the end of the First World War.
The Great War as it was also known at the time came to end on Nov. 11, 1918. at 11 a.m. with the signing of the armistice between the Allies and Germany.
Sadly, Pte. George Lawrence Price he died just two minutes before the armistice was signed, the last Canadian and Commonwealth soldier killed in the War to End All Wars.
Sunday’s service at the cenotaph on top of the hill at the park was to remember not only people like Price but all Canadians, especially those from the Port Colborne area that gave up their lives in the First and Second World Wars, Korea, Afghanistan and military missions around the world.
“We do this for our veterans,” said Royal Canadian Legion Branch 56 Poppy Campaign chair Carol Madden before the start of the ceremony.
Madden and legion president Harry Hamilton estimate there are a dozen or so Second World War veterans alive in the city, most in long-term care facilities.
“There were a couple of Korean War vets here today but their numbers are dwindling as well … they are getting on in age,” Hamilton said of those who served in the three-year conflict that started in 1950.
Hamilton said Korea, a harsh conflict, is still a forgotten war by many. But he said that war and all others must be remembered.
“It’s very important that people remember and come out to these events. It’s the remembrance, it’s the sacrifice that our fellow Canadian paid … for the freedom we enjoy today. The best you can do for them is remember them,” he said.
Madden said Remembrance Days need to continue long past when veterans are gone and added they will continue as long as there is someone to organize them and carry them on.
Both she and Hamilton said a person doesn’t have to be a veteran or to have served to be a member of the Legion. They both said members of the general public are encouraged to join to keep things going.
“We have one or two Afghanistan vets that joined the Legion,” said Madden, adding part of Sunday’s service was to honour the memory of Cpl. Tyler Crooks, a Port Colborne resident killed in Afghanistan in 2009.
Hamilton was pleased with the turnout at the park, given Remembrance Day was a Sunday.
“The turnout was much larger than last year. It shows the people of Port Colborne do remember.”
There were close to 300 people in the park during the ceremony, which started off in bright, sunny
weather and ended with a light snow falling just as the poem “In Flanders Fields” was being read.
He hoped to see the same residents that came out for the morning service at a Bells of Peace service at 5 p.m. at King George Park in downtown Port Colborne. At that ceremony, the names of 64 First World War veterans, including nine from Wainfleet, who died overseas were to be read off and bells rung across the city.
Ceremonies were also held Sunday at the Wainfleet cenotaph and in Veterans Park in front of the Royal Canadian Legion hall in Fonthill.
A small ceremony was held at Royal Canadian Legion Branch 4 in Welland, which followed the larger service last Sunday at Chippawa Park.
People, however, did turn out to the park Sunday to hear the CBC broadcast of the national Remembrance Day ceremony played. Among people in attendance was Sylvie Browne of Troy, N.Y., whose grandmother was the sculptor of its Welland-Crowland War Memorial, Elizabeth Wyn Wood, whose name can be seen on the back of the granite landmark.