Hundreds of residents gather at Riverside Veterans Memorial Park to take part in the annual Remembrance Day Ceremony at the Cenotaph. The ceremony began with the annual Royal Canadian Legion Annual Remembrance Day Service held at the Esplanade Arts & Heritage Centre, followed by a procession along First Street toward the Cenotaph for the 11th-hour ceremony.--NEWS PHOTO BRENDAN MILLER
bmiller@medicinehatnews.com
A bugle horn played the gallant sounds of “The Last Post” as hundreds of Hatters gathered Monday at Riverside Veterans Memorial Park in silence to honour those who have fought and died in battle during the city’s annual Remembrance Day ceremony.
Beginning with the procession of flags and followed by the singing of the national anthem, a full house attended the annual Royal Canadian Legion Annual Remembrance Day Service held at the Esplanade Arts & Heritage Centre theatre, requiring overflow seating.
A solemn procession followed, which included soldiers, cadets, veterans and first responders, who marched along First Street toward the Cenotaph for the 11th-hour ceremony.
“They shall not grow old as we that are left grow old,” said Scott Schall, Royal Legion sergeant at arms with 30 years of service with the Forces. “Age shall not weary them … we will remember them, we will remember them.”
Four honour guards stood watch over the Cenotaph as residents and dignitaries gathered to pay their respects, including members of the wreath party, Cypress-Medicine Hat MLA Justin Wright, Mayor Linnsie Clark, MP Glen Motz and members from CFB Suffield.
“It’s all about remembrance,” said Schall following the ceremony. “And I think that Canadians more so than anywhere else take things personally.”
Schall spoke about the importance of remembering all who served in the Canadian Forces on the day that commemorates the end of the Great War.
“It’s not just soldiers going off to (world wars). Now we’re peacekeepers, we are war on terror soldiers, we are people that are UN and NATO and we go to all sorts of causes in the world. And we all, at the end of the day, get to come back to the greatest country on Earth.”
Following the wreath-laying ceremony members of the public were invited to place a wreath or poppy on the Cenotaph to show their respect.
During this time John Jeffery approached the Cenotaph with his four-year-old grandson Wayland to lay a wreath with a photo of his great grandfather.
“This is your great grandpa, you took his wreath and planted it here today,” Jeffery explained to Wayland. “If he didn’t come home, I wouldn’t be here, your mommy wouldn’t be here. So that’s what this means, we are here.”
Jeffery recalls attending Remembrance Day services as a child and hopes to instil the importance of remembrance into the next generation.
“I remember it every time I come to Remembrance Day, where it started for me, and so we carry it through from the Greatest Generation. We’re the handover generation to the next generation and they’re the ones that are going to make this world a better place, that’s our future,” said Jeffery, who comes from a military family.
“We can carry the message, it’s so important, we have to do it,” said Jeffery. “We’ve learned from the best, we’ve learned from the guys on the ground or under the ground. Those are the men who have sacrificed so much, and those who come home and still carry that awful burden to their grace,” Jeffery cites the PTSD many veterans suffer during and following their service.
Following the service, Legion members and the public were invited to the Royal Canadian Legion Branch No. 17 for a social event full of camaraderie.
“You can serve with a guy overseas, come back from that, not see that guy for 15 years, and then the next time you see them, you carry on exactly where you left off. So that’s exactly what happens over at the Legion, every year, people just pick up where they left off and see if everybody else is OK, if they need anything, and they carry on again.”
New this year, the city painted a veterans crosswalk between city hall and Riverside Veterans’ Memorial Park in late following a request from Edward Devine, who served with the Canadian Forces for 40 years.
