Thousands gather for Armistice centenary
Cenotaph ceremony marks 100 years since the Great War
Second World War veterans in their 90s defied the discomforts of age and stood proudly at the cenotaph at the B.C. legislature Sunday morning, especially touched that it was the 100th anniversary of the Armistice that ended the First World War.
Lewis Madley joined the 225 Squadron of the Royal Air Force in March 1941. He turns 97 on Friday. He was in the army co-operation command that did all front-line reconnaissance and close support attacks for the RAF and United States.
The squadron made landings in North Africa, Sicily, mainland Italy, and the south of France. Madley was demobilized from Austria in December 1945.
“The whole reason is to remember our comrades who never came back. That’s the most important thing.”
Victor E. Wong, 93, a thirdgeneration Chinese-Canadian, enlisted in the Canadian Forces during the war and was assigned to the British Special Forces for a dangerous secret mission in Southeast Asia.
“I have to make it here,” he said. “This is the 100th anniversary of the Armistice. It’s a memory for everybody,” said Wong. “I was thinking how proud I was that everyone was here to celebrate with us.
“I hate war,” he said of coming to the ceremony. “I hope there will never be a world war again. I just pray to God that everybody will love each other and there will be no war. That’s all.”
O Canada was sung to start the ceremony, followed by the playing of the Last Post and then, at 11 a.m., two minutes of silence.
A crowd in the thousands spilled from the legislature grounds onto surrounding streets. Similar services were held around the region and across Canada.
A 21-gun salute by the 5th (B.C.) Field Regiment began and the Canadian flag was raised to coincide with the reciting of the Act of Remembrance: “They shall grow not old as we that are left grow old; Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn. At the going down of the sun, and in the morning, we will remember them.”
Rev. Andrew Gates, military chaplain, said a prayer at the cenotaph reflecting on the danger of the hateful acts and words that continue today.
“No gun ever made us free,” said Gates. “Those who died by them brought us time to make peace, and God, you are the judge of how well we’ve done.”
Typically, the lieutenantgovernor of B.C. lays the first wreath at the legislature, but Lt.-Gov. Janet Austin was in Vancouver this Nov. 11.
Victoria’s Silver Cross mother Sheila Fynes, her husband Shaun and their son Michael laid the first wreath.
Their 28-year-old son, Cpl. Stuart Langridge, killed himself March 15, 2008, having suffered post traumatic stress disorder after returning in 2005 from service in Bosnia and then in Afghanistan.
“It was 10 years ago but it feels like yesterday,” said Sheila Fynes.
The Fynes fought for years to have Langridge recognized as a fallen soldier, his death attributable to military service.
The Fynes were in Ottawa on Nov. 1 when they heard that Anita Cenerini of Winnipeg was announced as the Silver Cross mother for Canada. She will represent all mothers who lost children in the military, either in action or over the course of normal duty, until the end of October 2019.
“It’s huge, it means that all of our soldiers are being recognized and they are no longer disposable people who we would prefer not to talk about,” said Fynes. “They are all important, they all contributed and now they are all being recognized and it fills my heart with wonderful things.
“The tide has shifted,” Fynes said.
Cenerini placed a wreath at the National War Memorial during the Remembrance Day ceremony in Ottawa.
Her son, Pte. Thomas Welch, was an infantryman with the 3rd Battalion, Royal Canadian Regiment, based in Petawawa, Ont. He joined the Forces in 2001, served as a gunner in Afghanistan in 2003, and died by suicide on May 8, 2004, just months after his return. It was the first death by suicide of a Canadian soldier after returning home from the Afghanistan mission.
To mark the 100th anniversary of the Armistice, as the sun went down on Sunday, the Bells of Peace Ceremony was performed at Fort Rodd Hill. Across the country, bells rang 100 times.
The ceremony started at Signal Hill in Halifax and continued across the country at sunset, ending at Fort Rodd Hill, where Gen. Arthur Currie conducted basic training before sending men to the First World War.