Yearly I watch the televised Remembrance Day Ceremony at Mount Hope's
Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum on Airport Road. The program
commemorates those who served in our armed forces and lost lives...and honouring those veterans who remind us of the
sacrifices given to protect
our homelands...the 90 minute program, most heart-warming!
Spectator reporter, Mark McNeil travelled with the Royal Hamilton
Light Infantry in August (2017) on a First and Second World War
pilgrimage through northern France and Belgium where tens of
thousands of Canadians...and thousands of Hamiltonians gave their
lives. In his article published November 11, he wrote about First
World War Battlefields and cemeteries that were part of the trip and
reflects on local servicemen who took part in the Great War. “ Even
after all these years, the world wars of the last century still haunt
us,” he writes.
“The
brutality of so many lives torn apart still aches through the
generations and has forever twisted the Canadian psyche. And while
no soldier remains from the First World War to talk about the
experience ~ and the number of survivors from the Second World War
has severely declined, it has fallen on the rest of us to not only
remember the sacrifice, but reflect on the capacity of humanity
for inhumanity!
How does such a catastrophe of carnage happen? Could forces be
unleashed again to start another world war? War has certainly
touched my family.
“I
would not be here without the First World War. My grandmother's
first husband, William Reid, was killed in the Battle of Amiens, an
Allied offensive in August 1918 that ultimately led to the end of the
First World War in November of that year. She remarried a young man
named John Gilbertson and they had a daughter named Hazel, who became
my mother. They also had a son named Jack who would be killed in the
Second World War.
In
his book, “We Were Just Doing Our Bit” by Ed Keenlyside,
he comments, “Hamilton's main cenotaph at Gore Park does not list
the names of the fallen on the monument as it is a large community.
There is a scroll inside with the names of 1,800 service people who
gave their lives in the First World War...yet no one knows how
accurate that list is.
Stories Behind the Names on the Burlington Cenotaph
(First World War)
Sapper
Harry Ernest Brain:
(Oct. 29, 1896 - Aug. 20, 1918...(21 years).
Died
Caix, Somme, France. Buried Caix British Cemetery. The son of a
linesman, Brain was one of 10 children ~ 4 boys and 6 girls. He was
born in Oakville, but grew up in Burlington. On August 30, 1915, he
joined the 92nd
Highlanders Overseas Battalion, C.E.F. as a sapper. (A sapper is
someone who builds roads and bridges, lays or clears mines and takes
part in other construction projects). On the afternoon of August 20,
1918, this soldier was one of a party awaiting orders at the edge of
a wood, when an enemy high velocity shell landed in the middle of the
party, killing Sapper Brain and (15) others instantly, according
to Veterans Affairs records.
Lance-Cpl.Herbert
William Kearse:
(Aug. 27, 1888 - April 28, 1917...(28 years).
Died
Arleux Loop near Arleux-en-Gohelle. Buried...no known grave.
Commemorated at the Vimy Memorial in France.
Kearse born in Burford, Oxforshire, England, moved to Burlington in
1910. He was married with two sons, living on Brant Street. He
enlisted with his brother, Harold on Sept. 1, 1915. Harold survived
the war. Kearse was in charge of a Lewis gun crew...and while
proceeding to the jumping off position, just prior to an attack on
the village of Arleux-en-Gohelle, he was instantly killed by
concussion caused by the explosion of an enemy high-explosive shell,”
according to Veterans Affairs records.
Capt.
George Orme McNair:
Oct. 15, 1872 – May 1, 1916...(43 years).
Died Zillebeke (3 kilometres from Ypres). Buried Maple Copse
Cemetery, Ypres, west-Vlaanderen, Belgium. McNair was born in
Lowville, and after living out west for a time, returned to the
Hamilton area. He worked for the freight traffic department of the
Grand Trunk Railway and was in his early 40's when he enlisted in
1915. He had at least one son, also named George. A postcard written
to the boy from McNair said, “Hurry up and write me some more
letters. Take good care of Mummy Muff and the rest. Remember you
are 'the man of the house now'. Lovingly yours, Daddy.” About 2
1/2 months after arriving in France, McNair was killed when a mortar
shell exploded in his trench 3 kilometres east of Ypres.
Second World War
Sapper
Joseph Paul Breckon:
(April 11, 1920 – Sept 3, 1944...(24 years).
Died Normandy. Buried Bayeux War Cemetery, Calvados, France. Breckon
was born in the small community of Wiseton, Saskatchewan, but shortly
after his family moved to a farm in Nelson Township (now part of
Burlington). 'Paul' as he was known, cared for an ill mother who died
in March 1937. Five years later in October 1942, he went overseas
with the No. 1 Road Construction Company, Royal Canadian Engineers.
A month after D-Day, Breckon was working on road and building
construction in Normandy when he stepped on a buried mine on August
26, 1944, suffering severe injuries that he died from on September
3.
Gunner
Gordon Walter Langford:
August 4, 1913 – August 1944...(31 years).
Died near Caen. Buried Bretteville-Sur-Laize, Canadian War Cemetery,
Calvados, France. Langford was born inWinona and attended Burlington
Central High School and later worked as a truck driver. He enlisted
in Dundas with the regular army in May 1941, eventually shipping to
England. Langford's regiment was sent to France on July 26, 1944 to
help reinforce Allied advances after D-Day on June 6. On the evening
of August 14, he was laying in a slit trench with the added security
of a truck parked above him. A German plane hit the truck with an
anti-personnel bomb and Lanford and another soldier were killed
instantly.
Cpl.
Alexander Rennie MacDonald:
July 9, 1910 – July 13,1944...(34 years)
Died
near Caen. Buried Beny-sur-Mer Canadian war Cemetery, Calvados,
France. MacDonald was born in Burkie, Scotland and moved to
Burlington with his family when he was a boy going to Burlington
schools where he was remembered as a strong football athlete. He
enlisted with the 27th
Field Company, Royal Canadian Engineers on September 22, 1942,
shipping overseas on January 7, 1943. He was sent to Normandy,
France one month after D-Day. Less than a week later, he was killed
in bitter combat efforts by Canadian troops moving inland to try to
take the City of Caen.
There
is just one woman's name on the cenotaph: Cpl.
Thelma Florence Passant,
a talented cipher clerk with the Canadian Women's Army Corps in
Toronto. She coded and decoded military correspondence. She died of
a cerebral hemorrhage and was buried with full military honours.
LEST
WE FORGET
In
honour of the men and women who served and sacrificed
for
the freedoms and peace we enjoy today.
Info compiled by Merle Baird-Kerr...November 11, 2017
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