Psalm 116:3-4, 2 Samuel 18:6-8, Isaiah 2:4: Remembrance Day Address to the Port Alberni Community by Royal Canadian Legion Branch 293 padre, Captain Michael Ramsay, 11 November 2019.
This year we mark the 80th anniversary of our Nation’s entry into the 2nd World War and this, just 21 years after the conclusion of the 1st World War. We remember the veterans of those wars and other conflicts today. We remember the peace that soldiers and others died still longing for. We remember.
We remember: at 11:00 on this day 101 years ago church bells rang out celebrating peace after 4 horrible years of war in which 888 246 fatalities were suffered by the military of the British Empire of which Canada was an integral part.
When World War One broke out Canada was a country of just over 7 million people. Many left their family and work here to serve in the war there. 619 000 Canadians served in WWI and 66 976 never returned. That was almost 1-out-of-every-5 boys aged 16-24: meaning that in a community the size of Port Alberni now, 170 people would have been killed in the war. If you lived in Canada then, you would know more than one person who did not return.
Last year, on the centennial of the end of WWI we shared here many stories from the Alberni Valley of young people who served, lived, and died as they left their families, their communities, and their lives behind to march out of our homes and into the horrors of war.
Today in the Scriptures we read briefly about the horrors of a war in which there were 20 000 casualties, one of which was King David’s own son. Lest we forget the tragedies of war.
And in the Christian faith, of which I am a minister, we remember Jesus Christ, God’s own Son, who laid down his life for us all.
Eighty years, two months and 10 days ago today, on September 01, 1939, Germany invaded Poland. Two days later, on September 03, Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain declared war on Germany.
When Britain declared war, Canada had not been an independent nation very long, and even that independence was only partial. Canada was determined to defend our family and friends but to do so independently; so on September 9th, 1939, Canadian parliament approved war on Germany which was declared by Prime Minister Mackenzie King, in a letter to the King, the following day.
Many of us have friends and family that left our community and our country to offer their lives up in service for us. My grandfather served and my grandmother’s brother, who left the family farm to serve overseas, never did speak of the day they were surrounded by the enemy. We who have not served can’t possibly even imagine what he and others experienced on that day.
A couple of members of The Salvation Army in Port Alberni today were young children in Europe during the war. They remember scarcity like I have never seen: sharing food with their animals, making shoes out of corn husks, and coming home to see the roof blown off their barn. They remember hiding in the mountains and never knowing if family members were alive or dead. Lest we forget.
Port Alberni contributed to the war effort. There are many who served. There was David Ramsay. He was a Flight Lieutenant who by his enthusiasm and leadership, set a splendid example to all crews. He was awarded the Belgian Cross of War in 1940 and on April 28th, 1944, he perished in the war. He was 23 years old.
There was also Jim, Jack, John, Joe, Leo, Leonard, Nick and Dorothy Schan. Seven brothers and one sister (4 were connected to Pt Alberni) all enlisted in the military during the 2nd World War. No family is believed to have contributed more soldiers to Canada's war effort.
And then there was Edward John Clutesi, born to be hereditary chief of the Tseshaht First Nation, instead in August 1944, in France, at 26, he gave his life for us.
In 1942 HR MacMillian built a plywood mill here to support the cause. It was important for munition boxes and camp materials. Over 80% of the mill workers were women who served our country in this time of war right here in our community.
There was the Army camp here too. Our community of only 7000 people helped support this camp of 1500.
There was the Fisherman's reserve – which had a fleet of 100 landing craft - some of which were posted right here in Port Alberni. The idea was that if Japan invaded they could answer the call.
Many people across this country did answer the call. One million served in the Second World War at home, in Europe, in Asia, and around the world; more than 100 000 Canadian, Newfoundland, and 1st Nations service people sustained causalities and 45 000 lost their lives.
I have family members, as do many of us here, who served in both world wars. I have family and friends, as do most of us here, who have served in Canada’s military and our conflicts since: in Korea; Afghanistan; the Gulf War; in Peace Keeping including Lebanon, Somalia, Rwanda, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Haiti, Sudan, and other places. Today we remember all of Canada’s Veterans, serving and retired, and commemorate our fallen men and women of the Canadian Armed Forces, RCMP, Peace Officers, Merchant Navy, and Reserves. They will not grow weary as we grow weary; they will not grow old as we grow old. Today, we honour them, their families and their losses.
It is said that those who forget history are doomed to repeat it. Today we are wearing poppies as a pledge that we will never forget our veterans who offered their lives in service to God, to King and to Queen, and to Country, in service for us. Let us not forsake them. Let us not forget. Lest we forget. Lest we forget.
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