On this November 11th, I attended the Remembrance Service in Chester, NS, located about 50Km along the coast from Pleasantville. I went there last year, but because of the very heavy rain that day, the service was moved indoors to the local Royal Canadian Legion Branch 44 hall. With better weather predicted, I decided to return to experience the Chester service outside.
Photos of this mornings service are shown at the end of the blog, along with links to blogs written during June 2024 and 2025, covering my visits to many WWI and WWII CWGC cemeteries and other related sites in Europe.
Remembrance is personal to me and has always been very important for my family. From a very early age, in fact just a few months old, I have been attending annual Remembrance Day Services. Within my family, I currently know of seven who served in either WWI or WWII, of those five never came home, they are ...
My first
cousin once removed ~
Hugh Wright aged 26, 2003820, Royal
Engineer, died 21 October 1944, buried at Leopoldsburg War Cemetery, Limburg,
Belgium.
My granduncle
~
John Kerr aged 19, Clyde Z/4980, Drake Battalion, Royal Naval Division, died 4 February 1917, buried at Hamel Military Cemetery, Beaumont ~ Hamel, Somme, France.
My granduncle
~
Hugh Wright aged 32, 4511, Black Watch (Royal Highlanders), died 30 June 1916, buried at Southern Necropolis Cemetery, Glasgow, Scotland.
My second great granduncle ~
George Maxwell aged 63, Merchant
Navy (S.S. Arbonne), lost at sea on 24 February 1916, commemorated at Tower
Hill Memorial, London, England.
and
My first cousin twice removed ~
Hugh James Wright aged 21, 40539,
The 10th Battalion Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, died 2 October 1918,
buried Joncourt British Cemetery, Joncourt, Aisne, France.
The year 2025, was a
busy one for me in relation to moments of Remembrance, World War history and War Graves ...
In June after spending
time exploring Ireland's Wild Atlantic Way, I made a very special and memorable visit to Normandy in France, a place
where history will always record as having the Longest Day ~ D-Day on 6 June
1944.
I spent time and moments of deep reflection at all five invasion beaches, Sword (British), Juno (Canadian), Gold (British), Omaha (American) and Utah (American). I also visited the sites were Airborne Divisions, parachuted behind enemy lines at Pegasus Bridge (British) and Sainte-Mère-Église (American), during the hours before the main landings took place on the beaches, and stood on the cliff tops, of the near impossible seaborne assault, that was the task of the U.S. Army Rangers at Pointe du Hoc.
I also had the
enormous privilege of visiting twelve Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC)
Cemeteries, and for the first time ever an American and German Cemetery. Almost
130,000 military personnel, both Allied and German, lost their lives in
Normandy during the summer of 1944, there are 30 locations which contain their
war graves, 2 American, 19 CWGC, 1 French, 6 German, 1 Polish and 1 Russian. I
wrote the following after my visit to the war cemeteries of Normandy …
“There are many
messages in all war cemeteries, of which I believe the primary one is ~ war
graves are the great communications for peace. I have now stood in many such
locations in The Netherlands, Normandy, The Somme in France, Flanders in
Belgium and many other places in between. When there, it is easy to view the
rows of identically shaped gravestones as uniform and regimented ~ that is
partly the impression they are intended to provide, reflecting the military
comradeship these individuals shared in life, which continues in death.
With every visit I
have made to a war cemetery, it always becomes a reminder of the enormous
sacrifice made by so many ~ you not only see, but can feel the price of
freedom. I will never forget the first time I stood among the rows of pristine
white gravestones, immaculate lawns and colourful borders of a CWGC cemetery.
It was during April 2000 in Leopoldsburg, Belgium, it was a deep and very
personal experience, one that will forever remain etched in my memory.
Reading each name, each age, each personal inscription engraved with such care into the hard white stone, is always telling reminder of the human cost of war, as well as the extraordinary diversity of those involved in it. A visit to any of those cemeteries or memorials is always a forceful reminder, of the debt we can never fully repay to those who gave their lives for us.”
While in Normandy I
went to the location of ~ Massacre de l'abbaye d'Ardenne (Ardenne Abbey). A
place near the town of Saint-Germain-la-Blanche-Herbe, where on 7 June, 1944,
20 Canadian POW’s most of whom came from Nova Scotia, were murdered by 25th
Panzer Grenadier Regiment of the 12th SS Panzer Division. I stood exactly
where those young Canadians were lined up, and saw the bullet holes in the
wall behind where they fell. The grounds of adjacent to this, have over the
decades, become a shrine to Nova Scotia and Canada’s loss at the hands of the
SS. At four different CWGC sites, I visited the graves of each of those murdered Canadians.
My poppy and message at l'abbaye d'Ardenne ...
Under the perpetual care of the
CWGC, I visited two Canadian War Cemeteries, Beny-Sur-Mer Canadian War Cemetery
and Bretteville-Sur-Laize Canadian War Cemetery. At Bretteville, I was a guide for a morning to visitors from Vancouver, BC. One of those
Robert aged 84, who had travelled to France to visit the grave of his uncle, Private
George Alexander Hill of the North Nova Scotia Highlanders.
SO HE PASSED OVER AND
ALL THE TRUMPETS SOUNDED FOR HIM ON THE OTHER SIDE
At his grave and with tears in his eyes, Robert told me his uncle as a volunteer, had left his wife Kathleen Elizabeth and two-year old son Gordon back in Vancouver. Four months after his death in Normandy, Kathleen Elizabeth gave birth to their daughter.
It was an incredible
moment for Robert to have travelled all the way from Vancouver to Normandy, to spend that
time with his uncle. The little insight I got from Robert about Private George Alexander
Hill of the North Nova Scotia Highlanders, reminded me again that behind every name on a
gravestone and every name engraved on a memorial to the missing, there is a story to
tell. Tragically most of those stories will never be told, that is a huge loss to us all.
Private George Alexander Hill of the North Nova Scotia Highlanders ...
Bretteville-Sur-Laize Canadian War Cemetery ...
At Bretteville-Sur-Laize, a memento of Nova Scotia left at the grave of Corporal Vernon W. Boudreau of
Canadian Grenadier Guards, R.C.A.C. 22nd Armoured Regiment, died 28
August 1944, aged 23. The son of John and Margaret Boudreau, of Little Dover, Guysborough County, Nova Scotia ...
WE CANNOT FORGET HIS
CAREFREE WAYS THAT WON SO MANY FRIENDS IN HAPPY BYGONE DAYS
Not far from Juno
Beach where the Canadians came ashore on D-Day, is Beny-Sur-Mer Canadian War
Cemetery. Within the perimeter wall there are buried 2044 Canadians, 3 British and one
Frenchman. Sadly nineteen gravestones that bear the maple leaf, have the simple
inscription ~ “A soldier of the Second World War, A Canadian Regiment, Known
into God”.
Beny-Sur-Mer Canadian War Cemetery ...
As I walked along what seemed endless rows of white gravestones at Beny-Sur-Mer, bordered perfectly colourful flower beds and manicured lawns, I thought about my nearly four decades living in Canada, and felt compelled upon returning to my lodgings to write the following …
“As the summer of 1944
fades from living memory into history, memorials preserving the record of
Canada's part in the Normandy battles, have come to stand among the monuments
of other ages in this deeply historical region of France. I have read about the
plaque honouring servicemen from Ontario affixed to the 12th-century Chapelle
St- Georges in Caen. Cairns in village squares that commemorate Canadian
soldiers and regiments, the local signs inscribed Rue de Colonel Charles Petch
(of the North Nova Scotia Highlanders), Avenue des Glengarriens, Impasse des
Regina Rifles, which mark roads and laneways. There are many other memorials,
such as the one to the murdered Canadian POWs at Abbaye Ardenne, the decimation
of The Black Watch at Verrières Ridge and the fate of the British Columbia and
Algonquin regiments at Estrées-la-Campagne.
It is similar to what
I saw last year while at the battlefields of the Great War in The Somme and
Flanders, Canadians are not forgotten, the memory of the WWI campaigns they
fought, and the huge sacrifices they made, are etched forever in the stone of
grand monuments that rise so abruptly from bright green rolling landscapes.
Carved below the
national emblem on a Canadian war gravestone, as in all Commonwealth graves, is
a sequence of details which identifies each soldier; service number, rank,
name, regiment, date of death and in most cases their age. The gravestone also
contains space for a cross to be engraved below those details, but if a soldier
had indicated no religious affiliation, or if the family so wished, the
religious symbol was omitted. Families also had the option to choose or compose
a personal inscription, not to exceed 66 characters, to serve as a last
farewell.
The gravestones reveal
different degrees of loss. Some note the death of only one son, in the instance
of an only child, whereas others bear witness to the compounded tragedy
suffered by a distressingly high number of families. No less than 12 pairs of
brothers lie buried in Bény-sur-Mer War Cemetery, a total of double bereavement
unmatched in any other Commonwealth cemetery of WWII. Six families had to cope
with the loss of two sons on the same day in the same action. The Westlake
family of Toronto lost one son on June 7, and two more just four days later.
The tally does not end there, five soldiers in Bény-sur-Mer War Cemetery have a
brother buried in one of the other Normandy cemeteries; eight have brothers at
rest in Italy, Belgium or The Netherlands. One family, the Wagners of
Teeterville, Ontario, has a son buried in Bény-sur-Mer War, a second son on the
road to Falaise in the Bretteville-sur-Laize Canadian War Cemetery, and a third
in the Groesbeek Canadian War Cemetery in The Netherlands. Another family, the
Lanteignes of Caraquet, New Brunswick lost three sons between June 12 and
September 15, 1944., one buried in Bény-sur-Mer War Cemetery, the second in
Bretteville-sur-Laize, and a third in the Coriano Ridge War Cemetery in Italy.
The Kimmels of Milner, British Columbia, lost two sons ten days apart in
Normandy and a third in Italy six months later.
This afternoon while
walking between the many rows of white gravestones at Bény-sur-Mer, where all
but 4 of the 2048, are engraved with the Canadian Maple Leaf, my thoughts were
exercised about my 37 years living in Canada, and the many people I have
crossed paths with. During all those years, I have always felt there is a
tragic lack of knowledge about their country's human and material contribution
to both WWI and WWII. Perhaps it is considered that the events of those wars,
if known to any level, belong to the generations of the past and have no
relevance today.
I do not think for one
minute that it is solely a Canada problem, I have no doubt it will be similar
in all of the Allied countries, such as Britain, USA, New Zealand and
Australia. Perhaps the memory has no applicability in those countries, because
none had suffered the deprivation of an extended occupation followed by the
euphoria of a liberation. I know from my past travels within European countries
~ locations that did endure a foreign army’s subjugation, to be later liberated
by another ~ they have long generational memories. From the infants in school
to their parents and grandparents, they know the stories and have learned of
the human cost. It has become embedded deep within their culture, to the point
that I can never imagine it will be forgotten.
I believe it is worth
highlighting some facts about Canada during WWII. It was the only Allied
country whose overseas military was made up from volunteers, of which over
45,000 gave their lives. Unlike in Britain and the United States (Pearl Harbour
in 1941), they were not motivated to join up because their country was attacked
or bombed, they did so because it was the right thing to do.
As a percentage of
population (11,500,000 in 1941), the Dominion’s contribution to the war effort
was by far, the largest amongst any of the Allied nations. By the end of the
war Canada had the fourth largest air force and the third largest navy in the
world. During WWII, the Canadian Merchant Navy had completed over 25,000
voyages across the treacherous Atlantic. An incredible number of over 130,000
Commonwealth pilots and aircrews were trained at many locations across the
country, as part of the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan. For the
relative population size of Canada, the contribution to both WWI and WWII in
all forms was huge ~ which should always be a source of enormous pride to all
Canadians today, tomorrow and forever into the future.”
A Canadian "Known Unto God" at Beny-Sur-Mer Canadian War Cemetery ...
As mentioned above
while in Normandy, I made what was my first visit to an American and German War
Cemetery.
The Normandy American
Cemetery and Memorial, maintained by the American Battle Monuments Commission
(ABMC), is located at Colleville-sur-Mer. Looking over Omaha Beach it attests
to the enormous American price paid for the liberation in one small corner of
France. The grounds contain the graves of 9389 military dead, while on the Walls
of the Missing, are inscribed a further 1557 names whose graves are unknown, rosettes
mark the names of those who have since been recovered or identified. Most of
the 10,946 memorialized at this location lost their lives during the D-Day
landings and ensuing operations.
While walking over the
perfect lawns of the Normandy American Cemetery, with its views of Omaha Beach
and the English Channel, the American National Anthem was played on a Carillon.
Instantly everyone stopped and faced the American flag that towers above the
cemetery. During this, I could easily pick out the American visitors, those of
them who were veterans saluted, while the others placed their right hand on
their heart. It was an incredibly emotional moment, one that will be impossible
to forget.
The Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial ...
.JPG)
.JPG)
Private James L.
Lange, Service # 36599091, from Michigan.
Recipient of the Bronze
Star and Purple Heart medals
The names of the 1557 missing ..
Not far from the
American War Cemetery at Omaha Beach is La Cambe German War Cemetery. Maintained
by the German War Graves Commission (Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge),
the grounds are the final resting place of 21245, the largest such site in
Normandy.
By comparison to the
American cemetery and the many dozens of CWGC sites I have visited over the
years, I respectfully found the German cemetery to have a kind of bold, dark
and almost haunting feeling about it. Also, it did not make the same emotional
connection that every other war cemetery has done on me, history and my
knowledge of it, may explain that.
As always, at any war
cemetery or memorial, I get overwhelmed with many thoughts, then soon afterwards I have to
write about them ~ my visit to La Cambe was no different …
“Walking through La
Cambe German War Cemetery, the first such site I have ever visited, I thought
about a takeaway lesson that can be learned from the experience ...
The lesson that I will
take with me, is that actions can have consequences. The actions that came from
the ego of one man Adolf Hitler, and its consequences, led to the deaths of
over 21000 of his own countrymen within this cemetery. In his war of aggression
on Europe, 4.3 million Germans serving in the military were killed, along with
estimates of up to 500,000 civilians who perished in the country's bombed out
towns and cities.
Actions have
consequences does not only apply to Hitler, it applies to all of the 21000 who
surrounded me at this eerily somber and somewhat haunting location. Whether
they were drafted, or were active, eager and willing participants, they still
fought in support of an evil, despotic regime. I suspect the one thing that
every one of these men, who lie in perpetuity within this cemetery, would say
if they could speak now ~ is be careful how you live, because your actions have
consequences.
I am glad that I stopped at La Cambe German War Cemetery, it is part of history, it might be an ugly part of history, but all history deserves to be remembered.”
Upon leaving the
cemetery to make my way over to the adjacent Visitors Centre, I noticed young couple
entering the grounds carrying floral a wreath bordered with a ribbon in black,
red, and gold, the colours of the German flag. I stopped and observed this, and
had a brief moment of disbelief that anyone would take a wreath into a German
War Cemetery. This was quickly followed by an enormous personal revelation ~ the loss is
the very same. This young couple were perhaps visiting the grave of a great
grandfather or grandfather or granduncle, in the very same way that I have done
in past visits to family war graves in The Somme, Scotland and Belgium. I had
never before considered that on the German side, the loss of fathers, sons, or brothers
would have had the very same tragic affect that it had done upon my family. On
each November 11th, we stand in silence at 11.00am, with thoughts of
the Allied Servicemen and Women who paid the ultimate sacrifice during the 20th
Century’s great conflicts, but I believe few ever consider the German losses.
It was an extremely enlightening moment for me to watch this young couple enter
the cemetery, and come to the conclusions that I did.
As a result of my thoughts about the experience of La Cambe German War Cemetery, I wrote the following in the Visitors Book ...
The loss is equal …
The final two Normandy photos for this blog were taken at the CWGC Ryes Cemetery, located not far inland from Gold Beach at
Arromanches, where the first burials were made there just two days after the D-Day
landings. The cemetery contains 652 Commonwealth burials (630 British, 21
Canadian, and one Australian), in addition there are also one Polish casualty
and 335 German graves. The two photos below show a German grave, that of Obergrenadier
W. Lutzand, killed 23 July 1944 and Lazarus Cohen, of the Gordon Highlanders, a Jew,
killed 21 July 1944, aged 31 ~ their graves are only about four feet apart …
On the day after I
returned home to Nova Scotia from Europe, I successfully applied to expand my
current volunteer activities with the CWGC, to become a War Graves Inspector
here in the South Shore.
I was initially allocated 10 war graves in Lunenburg County, and then after a visit in August to the CWGC Canada, Americas, and Pacific (CAPA) office in Ottawa, I took on a further 19 graves extending south into Queens County. It is an absolute honour to do this, and I plan soon to fully research and write about each of my casualties, in the hope of giving them back a Lost Voice.
It may not be widely
known, in Canada there are 14366 war graves under the care of the CWGC at 3618
locations across the country. To qualify as a war grave or as a CWGC casualty on a
memorial, the serviceman or women will have died between the following dates …
Also to qualify, there is no requirement to have been killed due to actual enemy action. For example in Canada, a significant number of the WWI and WWII graves, could have been due to illness or injury within Canada while serving in the military during the qualifying dates. Many others will have died due to accidents, I know of many war graves across Canada that belong aircrews who served with the RCAF, RAF, RAAF and RNZAF, and were in Canada as part of the very successful British Commonwealth Air Training Plan (BCATP) during WWII. In the coastal areas, mainly the Maritimes, you will find war graves of many nationalities, who served in the Merchant Navy and fell victim to German U-Boats in the Atlantic, and now lie beside members of the RCN or RN who fought in the WWII Battle of the Atlantic. In Newfoundland, there is a CWGC cemetery for Commonwealth aircrews, who were killed in aircraft accidents out of Gander, while serving with the RAF Ferry Command. There are many other casualties buried in Canada, who did in fact die as a result of direct enemy action in the conflict areas of WWI and WWII, who were sent home and later succumbed to their war-related injuries. It is a similar scenario throughout the world in countries where you would not expect to find a war grave.
The CWGC has a global
footprint and care for graves and memorials of 1.7 million WWI and WWII
servicemen and women, at 23,000 locations in 150 countries and territories. It
is a huge task and one that is extremely well managed and deeply respected.
Last year, I had the privilege of being able to visit and tour the CWGC French headquarters at Beaurains, located in the heart of the former WWI Western Front. At the entrance to the building are words describing the work of the Imperial War Graves Commission (now the CWGC) written by Rudyard Kipling..
“The single biggest bit of work since any of the pharaohs-and they only worked in one country”
Photos from the Remembrance Service at Chester this morning …
Chester has a very impressive war memorial displaying a bronze statue of a Nova Scotia Highland soldier. It was unveiled on August 4, 1922 in memory of 54 men who laid down their lives from the area during the First World War, but now bears the names of those who gave their lives in the Second World War, Korea, and Afghanistan.
The design and cast were the gift of J. Massey Rhind, a Scottish-American sculptor. He began his studies under his father before attending the prestigious Royal Scottish Academy in Edinburgh as a 15-year old prodigy. He then continued his studies in England, followed by two more years in Paris, before moving to New York in 1889 when he was 29. After the First World War, Rhind lived in Chester. His work in Nova Scotia includes the Halifax Grand Parade Cenotaph, New Glasgow Cenotaph, and Cornwallis Statue.
The plaque and bronze figure on the memorial cost $2050 and was cast in New York. The base and steps of the monument were cut from one granite boulder.
Below are blogs written during my visit to
Normandy this past June, click on the images or the links below …
https://southshoretidewatch.blogspot.com/2025/06/euro-2025-normandy.html
The blogs below are from my June 2024 visit to family war graves, and many other war related sites in Scotland, Belgium, The Netherlands and France ~ click on the images or the links ...
https://southshoretidewatch.blogspot.com/2024/06/euro-2024-family-war-grave-in-glasgow.html
https://southshoretidewatch.blogspot.com/2024/06/euro-2024-wuustwezel.html
https://southshoretidewatch.blogspot.com/2024/06/euro-2024-my-return-to-leopoldsburg-war.html
https://southshoretidewatch.blogspot.com/2024/06/euro-2024-somme-and-family-war-graves.html
https://southshoretidewatch.blogspot.com/2024/06/euro-2024-somme-to-flanders.html
https://southshoretidewatch.blogspot.com/2024/06/euro-2024-ypres-passchendaele-and-tyne.html
https://southshoretidewatch.blogspot.com/2024/06/euro-2024-today-in-somme-and-flanders.html
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