This morning, I attended the Royal Canadian Navy Remembrance Day service at the Halifax Memorial; there is more about the memorial and the service later in this blog.
As always on this day, and many others throughout the year, I think about the five from of my family, who served and never returned from WWI and WWII …
My first cousin once
removed ~
Hugh Wright aged 26,
2003820, Royal Engineer attached to the 49th Infantry Division (The Polar Bears),
died 21 October 1944.
Buried at Leopoldsburg War Cemetery, Leopoldsburg, 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), torpedoed on 24 February 1916.
Lost at sea, 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.
In addition to the named casualties, I
know of two other relatives who fought and survived WWI and WWII ...
My granduncle ~
David Wright, WWI, Rifleman, 6259, 5th Battalion Scottish Rifles, 19th Infantry Brigade.
Three of his relatives are mentioned above, his son Hugh Wright killed WWII in Belgium, his brother Hugh Wright served in WWI, died in Glasgow as a result of battle injuries, and his cousin Hugh James Wright killed WWI in France, one month before the Armistice.
My granduncle ~
James Kerr, served in
both WWI and WWII, M12260, Royal Navy.
Mentioned above is his brother, John Kerr killed WWI
in France.
Remembrance is an eleven-letter word, that many of us only
think about each year on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh
month ~ but remembrance is an act, not a thought. How many know about the history of their local war memorial, and the names engraved with such care onto
the stone. How many know of the Commonwealth cemeteries in the far-off lands, such as The Netherlands, Belgium, France, Italy, Germany, Iceland, Hong Kong, Japan,
and the many more places in between, where those who are named on local memorials
now lie in perpetuity.
It has to be recognized that for the first two years of WWI,
Canada relied on a voluntary system of military recruitment. It was only after
a long and difficult political debate in 1917, that the country adopted a
policy of conscription, or compulsory service. Canadian casualties of WWI
amounted to 66,002 killed with about 172,000 wounded. Of the wounded, many
thousands would return home, to die later from their injuries.
During WWII “only” volunteers served overseas, of those who
crossed the Atlantic or Pacific to mend our future, 45,388 where killed, with a
further 55,000 injured.
Of the 66,002 Canadians killed in WWI, there are still
19,386 who remain missing, and therefore are named on memorials to the missing, such as Vimy
Ridge, Beaumont Hamel, the Menin Gate, the Passchendaele Canadian Memorial and
many more.
The Canadian missing from WWII amount to 8065 out of the
total 45,388 killed, their names can be found on the Ottawa Memorial, the Runnymede
Air Forces Memorial, the Halifax Memorial, Bayeux Memorial, Groesbeek Memorial,
Cassino Memorial and others.
Having been fortunate to have travelled a number of times to WWI and WWII sites in
Europe, and walked across the manicured grounds of dozens of war cemeteries, or
felt very small standing by vast memorials to the missing, I have observed
firsthand the level to which Canadians and their Allies are remembered. I have
driven through villages and towns in Normandy, The Somme, Flanders and north
into The Netherlands, and seen Canadian flags flying in the most random of
places ~ an Act of Remembrance that has become cultural in those countries.
As a measure of their thanks, and further Act of Remembrance,
every spring Canada’s capital city Ottawa blooms with the colour of tulips, sent
each year by The Netherlands as gratitude for Canada’s significant role in
their WWII liberation.
Today in The Netherlands, Belgium and France, the sacrifice of
Canada and the Allies is taught in schools, families adopt and care for graves,
they consider it a duty, that is passed down from generation to generation ~ a
genuine Act of Remembrance, which is not reserved for only one day a year.
For me this year was again a poignant reminder of the tragedy of war, when I had the privilege to visit the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) plots at Iceland’s Reykjavík (Fossvogur) Cemetery, which is one of six CWGC sites located around the country.
The two CWGC plots within the civil Reykjavík (Fossvogur) Cemetery has 206 WWII casualties. Four of these burials were made in the summer of 2000, when weather conditions in 1999 made it possible, to recover remains from a RAF aircraft that had crashed into a glacier in 1941. Of the Commonwealth burials at Fossvogur, there are 140 British, 47 Canadian, 5 Australians, and 5 New Zealanders. In addition, under the care of the CWGC, there are 8 Norwegian war graves, one Soviet (Russian), and 8 non-war burials. There are also two “Known Unto God” graves, those of Merchant Seamen ...
From the link below you can read more about the my visit to Fossvogur,
where I have written about some of the casualties buried there, together with additional information about the site and Iceland during WWII.
Click on the image on link …
https://southshoretidewatch.blogspot.com/2026/06/iceland-2026-cwgc-reykjavik-fossvogur.html
One story that I did not cover within the above blog, is from research compiled by Gísli Jökull Gíslason of Reykjavik, Iceland, that of Radio Operator Leonide Bart Long, who came from New Brunswick. He served with the Royal Air Force Ferry Command, a unit of the RAF responsible for ferrying military aircraft from North America, via Gander in Newfoundland and Reykjavík, Iceland, to Prestwick in Scotland.
On May 10th, 1942, Lockheed Ventura Mk1 (Serial Number
AE740) with Radio Operator Leonide Bart Long, Pilot Officer Paul Zimmer and
Navigator M. Schellenberg, left Gander, Newfoundland bound for Iceland. At about 30 minutes from landing
at Reykjavík the aircraft's starboard engine failed. Flying too low on their approach to
the landing strip, flight control gave AE740 a red light to "go
around". Pilot Officer Paul Zimmer applied full throttle to attempt
a left turn, but lost control, the aircraft hit two houses, and crashed into a third,
a huge fire broke out. Both Zimmerman and Schellenberg, together with all the
occupants of the three houses managed to escape the inferno, but tragically Leonide
Bart Long could not. All attempts to rescue him proved to be impossible. While
screaming for help, a British officer gave the order for a merciful death, Radio
Operator Leonide Bart Long was then shot by a Military Policeman.
Radio Officer Leonide Bart Long
Royal Air Force Ferry
Command
Died 10 May 1942,
aged 22
Son of George W. and
Annie Long, of Clair, New Brunswick, Canada.
His brother’s Rodrigue and Urbain Long made the first family
visit to his grave in 1981; they both know the tragic circumstances of
their brother’s death.
The work of recovering and identifying the casualties of both WWI
and WWII continues today. Every year the CWGC is informed of around 80 or more new
discoveries of human remains worldwide, with the majority coming from WWI in Europe.
Although there was a systematic search of the battlefields after both world
wars, the severe conditions meant that some bodies were never located. Today
with the expansion of towns, cities, together with improvements to
infrastructure, and the seasonal cycle of agricultural work, there continues to
be discoveries in the former battlefields.
In addition to the recovery of casualties, there are a
number of extremely dedicated volunteers from Europe and the Commonwealth, who
work individually or as a team, to research WWI and WWII “Known Unto God”
graves, in a hope of giving back an identity. By using CWGC records, regimental
war diaries, burial records, recorded witness statements and much more, the
volunteers collect, then scrutinize all the relevant documentation, to eventually
present a case for official identification to the Joint Casualty and
Compassionate Centre (JCCC) for British casualties. For other Commonwealth
countries those departments would be, the Canadian Department of National
Defence (DND), Unrecovered War Casualties-Australia (UWC-A), and the New
Zealand Defence Force (NZDF).
Last month (October 2026) there were a number of rededications and burials in Europe. Below I have written about two of them, which perfectly highlights the magnificent work that is still being done ~ the rededication of a WWII grave, and
the burial of a WWI casualty ...
Lance Corporal Ronald Smirthwaite, killed 22 February 1945.
Ronald Smirthwaite was born in Sheffield on 2 December, 1922.
He was one of eight children born to Abel and Ada Short of Sheffield, Yorkshire.
Tragically, Abel his father died when Ronald was only 4.
Ronald joined the Army in May 1944, initially into the
General Service Corps employed as a blacksmith's striker, an occupation
described as providing the muscle to the blacksmith's skilled work. He then
joined the Hallamshire Battalion, The York and Lancaster Regiment, who were attached
to the famous 49th Infantry Division ~ The Polar Bears.
After landing on Gold Beach, Normandy, then fighting through
France, Belgium and into The Netherlands, Ronald eventually arrived in early December 1944 on “The
Island”, a waterlogged area between Nijmegen and Arnhem in The Netherlands. Later in February 1945, he took part in Operation Veritable, the Allied
offensive into Germany.
On the 9th of February 1945, the Hallamshires moved forward
into the front-line trenches, relieving the Royal Scots Fusiliers in the sector
encompassing Zetten and Randwijk. After they took over the sector, military
records indicate that the Hallamshires routinely launched reconnaissance and
combat patrols into Indoornik and along the adjacent Rijn Wettering Canal.
On February 22, 1945, during a German attack against the platoon
stronghold at De Hoeve Farm (still in The Netherlands), 31 men were captured
and two were killed, Lance Corporal Ronald Smirthwaite was initially recorded
as missing. But it was learned later that he was in fact wounded, captured, and
taken away on a boat across a canal with others, as Prisoners of War. In the
hope of getting back to the British lines, he attempted an escape from the
boat by diving into the icy waters, tragically he never made it, and most likely
drowned.
When his body was initially found, it was recorded that a document was found on him, which listed his next of kin as his mother. In addition, his service
number dog tags tied with a leather cord were found, along with a medallion stamped
with “Zeelandia” on one side and “Zierikzee” on the other, and a metal fountain
pen with no inscription.
Although it is believed the intentions were good, local residents who found Lance Corporal Ronald Smirthwaite, buried him near a ditch adjacent to the canal, without any of the mentioned means of identification.
During July 1947, most of the temporary graves at and near Ronald's burial location, were collected and buried at Jonkerbos War Cemetery in Nijmegen. Because there was no means of identification Ronald was buried as an unknown, and was later commemorated on the Memorial to the Missing at the Groesbeek Canadian War Cemetery.
His successful identification came after extensive
examination of research provided to the JCCC department within the British Ministry of
Defence (MOD) and the National Army Museum. The case evidence was submitted by
an officer in the Royal Netherlands Army, following incredible research by Philip
Reinders, an author and volunteer from Arnhem, in The Netherlands.
On Tuesday 6 October 2026, 81 years after his death, Lance
Corporal Ronald Smirthwaite got his identification back at Jonkerbos War
Cemetery. The rededication service conducted with full miliary honours, was organised by
the JCCC, and supported with representatives from The Princess of Wales Royal
Regiment, The Yorkshire Regiment, the CWGC, local Dutch dignitaries, and
representatives of the Dutch and Belgian Polar Bear Associations, of which I am
a member.
It is through the incredible work of volunteers, like Philip
Reinders, that those casualties who were once missing, are again found, remembered and
honoured.
Lance Corporal Ronald
Smirthwaite
Service Number:
14759957
York and Lancaster
Regiment, The Hallamshire Bn.
Died 22 February
1945, aged 22
Son of Ada Baker, of
Firth Park, Sheffield.
A SOLDIER, A BROTHER,
I ONCE WAS LOST BUT NOW AM FOUND. REST IN PEACE
Lance Corporal Claude Stanley Dell, killed 25 April 1915 …
On 13 October 2026, 111 years after he was killed, a burial
service was held at Poelcapelle British Cemetery, Flanders, Belgium, for Lance
Corporal Claude Stanley Dell of 5th Battalion, The Yorkshire Regiment, who was
killed in action on 25 April 1915.
Claude was born in London on 23 November 1889. He was the
fourth of five brothers: Frederick, Leighton, Charles, Claude and Guy. By 1911
the family had moved north to Scarborough where the siblings were locally
acclaimed as excellent swimmers. Some of the brothers worked in the grocery
trade, and were active members of the local Territorial Army branch.
At the outbreak of WWI, Leighton was already serving with
the Royal Field Artillery. His other brothers soon followed his example, Frederick
joined the Yorkshire Hussars, while Charles, Claude and Guy all enlisted in the
5th Battalion, The Yorkshire Regiment. Before the war, this was a Territorial Battalion
that had been formed in Scarborough in 1908 from local volunteer units.
They spent some months training, and on 17 April 1915
departed from Newcastle bound for the Western Front. They arrived on the Ypres
Salient on 23 April, and immediately found themselves caught up in fierce
fighting. During 24 and 25 April 1915, in the area around St Julien
and Fortuin, the battalion was deployed in support of Canadian troops.
On 25 April, Claude and a small number of other men went
forward under fire to offer support to the Durham Light Infantry who had been
trying to capture a farmhouse. Initially they gained ground but ultimately,
they were forced back by heavy machine gun fire. Ten men lost their lives that
day, including Claude who was just 25 years old.
Claude's brother wrote home to tell their mother that Claude
had been killed doing his duty, and that he would be buried behind the lines,
however his burial place was not recorded. As a result his name was eventually engraved on the memorial to the missing, the Menin Gate Memorial in Ypres.
In 2021, workmen discovered human remains while digging for
a rainwater cistern at Hazeweidestraat, St Julien, West Flanders. Found with
the remains were artefacts suggesting they belonged to a casualty who had
served with 5th Battalion, The Yorkshire Regiment.
A shortlist of twenty missing men from the battalion, who
had died in the area during the spring of 1915 was drawn up and examined. Following
successful DNA extraction and comparison with that of a distant relative on
Claude's maternal line, it was finally confirmed the remains belonged to Claude
Stanley Dell.
Finally after 111 years, he has received a military burial amongst
his pals, and in the presence of his great-niece and her family. The service
was supported by serving soldiers of The Royal Yorkshire Regiment, a bugler
from the Band of The Yorkshire Regiment, and Padre David Jeal of The Royal
Dragoon Guards. It was also attended by the British Defence Attache to Belgium,
Col. Nick Thom, the local mayor, representatives of the Belgian military,
members of the archaeological team who recovered the remains, the Ypres branch
of the Royal British Legion, the CWGC, and the JCCC "War Detectives" who worked incredibly hard on this case.
All four of Claude's brothers survived the war. Frederick,
Leighton and Guy later served with the Royal Flying Corps, whilst Charles was
the only brother to remain with The Yorkshire Regiment throughout all of WWI.
Lance Corporal Claude
Stanley Dell
Service Number: 632
Yorkshire Regiment,
5th Bn.
Died 25 April 1915,
aged 25
Son of Frederick and
Emma Dell, of 147, Falsgrave Rd., Scarborough.
DEEPLY LOVED PROUDLY
REMEMBERED BY HIS FAMILY FOREVER REST IN PEACE
Those ceremonies for Lance Corporal Ronald Smirthwaite and Lance
Corporal Claude Stanley Dell are a powerful reminder that remembrance is not a
one-time act. Decades after the guns fell silent, the Dutch, French, Belgian,
German, Italian, and Recovery & Identification Units from many other
countries, along with the Joint Casualty and Compassionate Centre, the
Commonwealth War Graves Commission, and many dedicated volunteers, continue the
work to ensure those who made the ultimate sacrifice are never forgotten and
honoured in the only way they deserve.
Those two examples are provided to give attention to the work, and related ceremonies, that still happen many times each year, with WWI and WWII burials and rededications, I
hope it provides a reminder that …
Commemoration and
Remembrance is not about a moment or time in the past, it is an ongoing
responsibility, a perpetual process.
Photos from today’s Remembrance Service at the Halifax Memorial …
The Halifax Memorial was erected by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission to commemorate men and women of the Commonwealth from both WWI and WWII who have no known grave. It particularly commemorates Canadian and Newfoundland Royal Canadian Navy (RCN) sailors, merchant seamen, soldiers and nursing sisters who lost their lives at sea. It also bears the names of men of the Canadian Army stationed in Canada, who have no known grave. The memorial is often incorrectly referred to at the Sailors’ Monument.
The memorial stands in Point Pleasant Park, Halifax, where it can be seen by all ships entering or leaving the harbour; it is common for naval vessels of all nations to pay respects by saluting when passing.
The
monument takes the form of a 12-metre-tall Cross of Sacrifice, similar in
design to those erected in CWGC cemeteries throughout the world. The cross
stands on an octagonal platform of Quebec grey granite, the faces of which have 23 bronze panels inscribed with 3257 names. Panels 1 to 3 contain 272 names
from WWI, while panels 4 through 23 display 2845 names from WWII.
The original memorial for only those lost at sea during WWI was erected near the site of the present one in 1924. In 1956 that memorial was moved and re-erected on the southern slope of Citadel Hill, with separate panels added for the names of those lost in WWII. In time this memorial deteriorated to such an extent that it was deemed unworthy of its purpose. It was completely dismantled in 1966, and the eroded stone panels were consigned to the sea at the nearby Bedford Basin on 7 November 1966, to the sounds of the Last Post.
The previous locations of the Halifax Memorial ...
The current memorial at Point Pleasant was unveiled in
November 1967, with naval ceremony, by The Honourable Henry Poole MacKeen, SM,
QC, Lieutenant-Governor of Nova Scotia, in the presence of Mr. Roger Teillet
PC, Minister of Veterans Affairs.
Among the names from WWI are 44 sailors who died in the December
1916 Halifax explosion, and 4 RCN midshipmen who died at the Battle of Coronel
(1 November 1914), and became Canada’s first casualties of that war.
The Halifax Memorial Inscription …
1914 1939
1918 1945
IN THE HONOUR OF THE
MEN
AND WOMEN OF THE
NAVY, ARMY
AND MERCHANT NAVY OF
CANADA
WHOSE NAMES ARE
INSCRIBED HERE
THEIR GRAVES ARE
UNKNOWN
BUT THEIR MEMORY
SHALL ENDURE
An attendee at this morning’s service was anchored just
off shore, HMCS Nanaimo (MM 702), a Kingston-class coastal defence vessel of
the Royal Canadian Navy. Built by Halifax Shipyards Ltd., Nova
Scotia, she was commissioned on May 10, 1997. Her home port was CFB Esquimalt
(British Columbia), but now has been relocated to CFB Halifax.
In September 1914, only one month after the start of WWI when casualties were already mounting up, Laurence Binyonne wrote one of the most famous and enduring poems of that war ....
For the Fallen
With proud
thanksgiving, a mother for her children,
Our nation mourns for
her dead across the sea.
Flesh of her flesh
they were, spirit of her spirit,
Fallen in the cause
of the free.
Solemn the drums
thrill: Death august and royal
Sings sorrow up into
immortal spheres.
There is music in the
midst of desolation
And a glory that
shines upon our tears.
They went with songs
to the battle, they were young,
Straight of limb,
true of eye, steady and aglow.
They were staunch to
the end against odds uncounted,
They fell with their
faces to the foe.
They shall grow not
old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary
them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of
the sun and in the morning
We will remember
them.
They mingle not with
their laughing comrades again;
They sit no more at
familiar tables of home;
They have no lot in
our labour of the day-time;
They sleep beyond our
nations foam.
But where our desires
are and our hopes profound,
Felt as a well-spring
that is hidden from sight,
To the innermost
heart of their own land they are known
As the stars are
known to the Night;
As the stars that
shall be bright when we are dust,
Moving in marches
upon the heavenly plain,
As the stars that are
starry in the time of our darkness,
To the end, to the
end, they remain.
When walking the grounds of any CWGC Cemetery, there are many aspects of the experience that remain seared in your memory, for me it is always the personal inscriptions. Written within the directive of 4 lines and no more than 66 characters, they can with such few words describe the incredible depth of personal loss.
One of the 10,786 Commonwealth graves at Lijssenthoek Military Cemetery, West Flanders, Belgium …
Lance Corporal
Charles Frederick Bell
Service Number:
S/17522
Rifle Brigade, 12th
Bn.
Died 2 February 1918,
aged 24
Son of Charles
Richard and Alice Bell; husband of Cicely Florence Bell, of 22 Arundel Square,
Barnsbury, London.
DADDY DEAR
I DID NOT SEE YOU
BUT MUMMY
HAS TAUGHT ME TO LOVE YOU
Charles died of gun penetrating wounds at a Canadian Casualty Clearing Station. His wife Cicely, never remarried and lived to be 89. The child who never saw her father, Joyce, was born in 1918 and also lived to be 89.
Finally ~ click on the image or link below, to view a video produced by the CWGC ~ in just over three minutes of emotional honesty, it says so much about the tragedy of war …
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