‘Yes, I’ll Answer the Call’
KENNER STUDENTS HEADING TO FRANCE TO VISIT TOMBSTONES OF NINE PETERBOROUGH SOLDIERS WHO ANSWERED THE CALL OF DUTY AND WERE KILLED IN SECOND WORLD WAR
Thousands of soldiers died on DDay - the largest seaborne invasion in history that saw the Allies invade Normandy and lay the foundations for liberating Nazi-controlled Europe during the Second World War. Nine Peterborough soldiers didn’t die that day — June 6, 1944 — but were killed in Normandy shortly after the landings and are all buried in Beny-sur-Mer Canadian War Cemetery in France. They were: - Joseph Thomas Heffernan, Cameron Highlanders (June 7) - John Stanley Couper, Cameron Highlanders of Ottawa, (June 8) - Robert Cameron Milburn, North Shore (NB) Regiment (June 8) - Sidney Howard Youngs, Stormont Dundas and Glengarry Highlanders (June 9) - John Patrick Hobbins, Stormont Dundas and Glengarry Highlanders (July 8) - Michael Hobbins, Stormont Dundas and Glengarry Highlanders (July 8) - John Ernest Lewington, Stormont Dundas and Glengarry Highlanders (July 8) - Stamford J. Reid, Stormont Dundas and Glengarry Highlanders (July 8) - Ernest Archibald Bell, Stormont Dundas and Glengarry Highlanders (July 8) Nearly 75 years later, Kenner Collegiate teacher Teresa Friar reflects on these men and how, in a country an ocean away from the battles, there are few war memorials, cemeteries or ruins to help us remember their sacrifice. “In Canada, which was not physically touched by war, it is so much easier to forget,” she says. “In the countries where it happened, there is no forgetting.” Friar wants to help change that. Over the winter, 21 Kenner students will research these nine soldiers using archival and online resources, to produce reports detailing as much as they can about who the men were, where they lived, the names of their family members, where they fought and how they died. In June, on the 75th anniversary of D-Day, she and the students will fly overseas to visit the cemetery. As the group stands around each tombstone, they will read out that soldier’s report, which she hopes will better humanize those who sacrificed their life for our freedom. Visiting European battlefields, war memorials and cemeteries in Europe is a tradition for Friar, who has been teaching history and English for 26 years, first at PCVS and now at Kenner. She often coincides these school trips with major anniversaries such as the 90th anniversary of Vimy Ridge (2007) or the 70th anniversary of Victory in Europe (2015). She recalls visiting Europe with her husband Eric Jackson, a retired Kenner history teacher, before she entered the teaching profession and being awestruck that she was standing on many sites where Eric’s father had fought in the First World War including Vimy Ridge. “It was very moving for me,” she says. “I thought, if I’m ever a teacher, I will take students to have the same experience.” They often do. While the teenagers are naturally energetic and chatty, or suffering from jet lag, they almost always have the same reaction when they step off a bus and witness the enormous and majestic war cemeteries that are so quiet and carefully kept. “The kids get sombre very quickly,” she says. The groups often spend about an hour at the cemeteries, sometimes visiting tombstones of relatives killed in action, and talking about the circumstances under which they died. Reciting their reports beside each of the nine tombstones should make June’s event even more profound. Two of the soldiers were brothers - John Patrick Hobbins and Michael Hobbins who were killed on the same day. “This is so important because these soldiers were volunteers, for the most part, who travelled thousands of miles away from home to fight for something important and never came back,” Friar says. “In many cases, their loved ones were never able to visit their graves, as travel was not incredibly easy or cheap. And these young men were not much older than the students I’m taking over. So we need to confront their sacrifice. We need to understand that these were not professional armies, these were armies of volunteers who said, ‘Yes, I’ll answer the call.’”