A quest to honour dead with poppies on homes
To memorialize soldiers and nurses killed in the First World War, a Toronto lawyer is proposing that paper poppies be displayed on their former homes for Remembrance Day, 2018.
The project, spearheaded by Patrick Shea, would see temporary poppy markers distributed to the homes associated with those deceased veterans. The occupants would be encouraged to place those poppies — 10 to 13 centimetres in diameter — in a front window or other prominent location for the week leading up to Nov. 11, 2018. That will be the 100th anniversary of the war’s end.
Beneath the poppy, on the weatherproof paper, will be the phrase “We Will Remember Them.”
The aim “is to show the impact of a war on a community,” explained Shea, who is hoping to work with Heritage Toronto on this idea. Shea has also sent his proposal to the Royal Canadian Legion seeking permission to use the poppy symbol.
While the exact address of a deceased veteran can, sometimes, be inexact, Shea said the key is that it is “an address associated with an individual who was killed.”
For some deceased, that would mean poppies are distributed to more than one home.
The temporary poppies, which will cost about 40 cents each to make, would be mailed with a letter of explanation to homeowners. Shea is still arranging funding for printing the markers, though it may be covered by his law firm, Gowling WLG. He hopes the poppies can eventually be replaced by permanent ceramic ones.
Each letter would include a QR code linking to the Canadian Great War Project, a website that provides exhaustive information on the First World War, and to the Virtual War Memorial. That would allow the occupants to learn about the nurse or soldier who once lived in their house.
“It’s one thing to read about history, it’s another for kids who live in houses that are still there to think that 100 years ago, the 17-year-old who slept in the same room they’re sleeping in left and never came back,” Shea said.
Apart from the poppies, Shea has approached Heritage Toronto to propose that two plaques be installed in St. Alban’s Square, a parkette on Howland Ave. One would display a wartime map of one block of Howland, highlighting the addresses of those who died or served in the war. The other would reproduce a touching 50-year-old parable written by Toronto Star journalist Gregory Clark about Howland after the war.
NO. 56 HOWLAND Lt. Eustace McGee, 20, Royal Air Force. Killed in February 1919, in an airplane accident in England while serving in the RAF.
NO. 41 HOWLAND Lt. John (Jack) McLaren, 24, 58th Battalion. Believed to have been wounded near Vimy, France, and died in April 1917. Maj. William (Bill) McLaren, 27, 19th Battalion. Killed in action in September 1916 likely in lead-up to the Battle of the Somme.
NO. 40 HOWLAND Lt. Cecil Perry, 25, Royal Field Artillery. Killed in April 1917 by a shell at Vimy Ridge.
NO. 17 HOWLAND Sapper Kenneth Buist, 24, Canadian Engineers. Died in a July 1918 motorcycle accident in England.
NO. 15 HOWLAND Capt. William Hall, 24, Royal Flying Corps. Killed in May 1917 when the plane he was testing crashed.