A ceremony held at Hillside Cemetery honoured 14 veterans who have been identified and provided a military gravestone by the Last Post Fund.--NEWS PHOTO BRENDAN MILLER
bmiller@medicinehatnews.com
The grave sites of 14 previously unknown Canadian veterans that lay in Hillside Cemetery received military gravestones and were honoured for their service during a ceremony Thursday.
Representatives with the Last Post Fund who work to ensure all veterans receive a dignified funeral and burial, joined MLA Justin Wright, who serves as the province’s liaison to the military, to honour the veterans who up until recently remained anonymous.
“Because they were marked in the cemetery records as being buried here, but nothing physical.” said Glenn Miller, president of Alberta Northwest Territory branch of the Last Post Fund. “Now through the Last Post Fund unmarked grave program, we’ve been able to instal military markers to honour their service.”
Miller explains throughout Canada’s war times, dating back to the Boer Wars, thousands of veterans have been buried in Canadian and foreign soil without a proper grave or identification. Some veterans were buried without any identifying markings due to insufficient funds at the time of death.
In the time period between the First and Second World War it was common for a soldier to be buried with a wooden cross that eventually deteriorated over time.
“Having a name, having the post nominals that are deserved and earned are of that story, part of the chapter of a book, very important,” says Miller.
Of the 14 veterans who received military gravestones lies second Lieutenant Harry Dobbin who was born in 1897 and died shortly after the Great War in 1919, and serving with the Royal Air Force (prelude to the Royal Canadian Air Force). The 14 gravestones will be cared for in perpetual maintenance by the government.
“Each one of these 14 stones tells a story, and just by reading the data on the front tells a unit. This here is a perpetual bookmark of information for the next generation as we pass a torch when they come out to the field of honour,” said Miller.
Several volunteer researchers with the Last Post Fund, including Yvonne Sugimoto, local and research unmarked graves of soldiers all across the country by searching through military records, obituaries, death records and even old photos and newspaper articles.
“We go to cemeteries and look for spaces and find out who’s actually there. Sometimes we start with the whole list of everyone in the cemetery, we go and photograph all the headstones and then figure out whose grave isn’t marked and do research on them,” explains Sugimoto.
Sugimoto says many times her research will lead her to families who were unaware that their relatives’ grave is unmarked, or even that their family members survived in the military.
“It takes a considerable amount of time and effort and looking for the information to put everything together to get a headstone.”
Wright laid a provincial flag and wreath on the gravestone of a former MLA who served with the military and reflected on the sacrifices Canadians made as they fought.
“These folks had not just their families, not just their communities in mind,” said Wright. “They were serving the military, they were having a direct impact on world conflicts. This is truly a moment to remember but also a humbling moment.”
The Last Post Fund’s primary mandate is to deliver the Veterans Affairs Canada Funeral and Burial Program and provide eligible Canadians and allied veterans a funeral, burial and grave marking.
Donations can be made to honour a person’s military legacy online at lastpostfund.ca, or by calling 1-800-465-7113.
