The wrong way to honour veteran

When he died in 1970, aged 72, Brigadier- General Elgin McKinnon Wansbrough, was Canada’s most decorated military dentist, having served in both world wars.

So when t he t own of Shelburne, in Ontario farming country, was naming streets in a new subdivision in 2005, local councillors decided t he main t horoughfare f rom the highway would be called Wansbrough Way.

It was almost a fitting tribute for a man who was born a few miles away in 1898, and enlisted in the First World War as a teenager and served in the Canadian Machine Gun Corps, for which he received the Military Medal for bravery in battle on land.

Unfortunately, as Shelburne Mayor Ken Bennington later told Wansbrough’s proud descendants, t he family surname was spelled correctly on every document except the one that mattered most.

Thus, today, on street signs in Shelburne, online in Google Maps, and in the records of government ministries, the post office, emergency services and gas and water utilities, the street is called Wansburgh Way.

That is the Scottish version of the same suffix, as in Edinburgh, meaning a standalone civic entity, originally a fortified village.

In English, it is borough, as in Scarborough, some- times shortened to brough; in French, it is bourg, as in Strasbourg; in German, berg or burg, as in Heidelberg or Hamburg.

So Shelburne got the word more or less right, etymologically. They just spelled it wrong.

Now, Shelburne is struggling mightily to fix its mistake at the request of the family, but that is easier said than done. The trouble is that at least 21 new properties, and all their residents, will need a whole new set of official documents and registrations.

As local chief administrative officer John Telfer told the Orangeville Banner, that includes health and social insurance cards, passports, utility bills, insurance records, driver’s licences and bank cards.

First, to avoid that administrative mess, Shelburne proposed l eaving Wansburgh Way as is, and naming another street General Wansbrough Lane, but that was nixed as confusing to emergency services, and also in violation of provincial street-naming rules.

So in a meeting this week, with members of the Wansbrough family in attendance, council decided to explain the error in a letter to residents, and ensure them the changes can be made at little or no cost, other than the bother.

At least one resident has painted the incorrect name on his garage.

“As mayor of the town of Shelburne, I would like to apologize to you and your family,” Bennington said at an earlier council meeting.

“Our i ntentions were great, but somewhere along the line a simple mistake was made. A simple mistake has spiralled out of control.”

After the First World War, Wansbrough earned a dental degree in 1923 from the University of Toronto, then set up shop in Shelburne.

He served overseas in the Second World War, eventually becoming director-general of the Canadian Forces Dental Corps.

T he dental b ui l di ng at nearby CFB Borden is named for him, and dental corps curlers still play in an annual bonspiel for a trophy he donated.

He died in Ottawa in 1970, and is buried in Greenwood/ Spring Brooks Cemetery, near Shelburne.