Today at 11:00 we marked the 100th
anniversary of the end of WWI. We remember the peace that soldiers and others
died still longing for. We remember.
We remember: at 11:00 on this day 100
years ago church bells spontaneously rang out across Europe 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. This sad number
does not include our allies, our rivals, innocent civilians and others. Our
family members and our countrymen lived, served, and died in this, the ‘Great
War’, the ‘war to end all wars’, the ‘First World War’.
When World War One broke out Canada was
a very small and sparsely populated country of just over 7 million people. Most
were farmers, fishermen, foresters or involved in other primary industries.
Many boys and young men left their family and work here to serve in the war
there. I have read stories of bankers and teachers and minors and scientists
and athletes and farmers and very young people from across this country and
Newfoundland who put their jobs, their careers, their parents, their
girlfriends, their new wives, their young children, and their whole lives on
hold until they returned home from the war - only many never did return home
from the war. They were never to be seen again by their wives, their children,
their brothers, their sisters, their mothers, their fathers.
Almost 7% of the total population of our
country – 619 000 Canadians served in this war and 66 976 Canadians never
returned. That was almost 1% (0.92%) of our country's whole population and it
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.
Canada contributed greatly and
sacrificed much in the First World War. Our soldiers’ many achievements on the
battlefield culminated in three months of victories that led to the end of the
war: this was known as “Canada’s Hundred Days.”
Canada’s efforts at Vimy Ridge,
Passchendaele, and elsewhere earned our army the reputation for being the best
troops on the Western Front. Because of this Canadian soldiers were given the responsibility
of being at the forefront of the attack. This earned faith of our allies came
at a great price. In the last 100 days of the war alone, our Canadian soldiers suffered
usually more than 100 casualties each day.
During the last 100 days of WWI, Canada’s
100 Days, more than 6,800 Canadians, First Nations, and Newfoundlanders were
killed and approximately 39,000 wounded. And just 2 minutes before 11am on
November 11th, 1918. Just 2 minutes before the world would the end ‘the
war to end all wars’ and our service people would be able to come home to their
families that missed them and love them, 2 minutes before 11am, Nov. 11th
1918, Canadian Private George Lawrence Price was fatally shot in the left
breast. He did not return home.
Here, in the Alberni Valley, of the only
1600 people who lived here at the time 116 of them – more than 17% of our
population – signed up to go overseas in just the first few months of the war
alone.
We know about Cyril Woodward who was
only 15 when he enlisted.
We know about the Redford boys - 3
brothers who enlisted from our area. Edward,
29, was wounded in a non-combat incident with a shell that killed 2 of his companions.
His brother William, age 19, was wounded in combat and sent home and their
brother Douglas at age 20 was killed in action – never to see home again.
And then there is the poet Charles Samuel
Bannell from the area. In November of 1916 he enlisted in the Canadian
Expeditionary Force and less than a year later, on Oct 30th, 1917 he was killed
in action.
And we know About George Bird Jr. He
attended the school in the basement of the Watson home on Argyle St. He was a
member of the swim club, played soccer; enjoyed hiking, fishing and hunting. He
worked at his father’s mill until he got a job as a clerk at the Royal Bank of
Canada in 1907. Then, November 25, 1915, at the age of 24, George Bird Jr.
enlisted the military. He took part in the capture of Vimy Ridge and other
significant battles of the war and a year and a half later, on June 5, 1917 he
died of wounds sustained in battle.
There are many stories from the Alberni
Valley and around the world of the young people who served, lived, and died as
they left their families, their communities, and their lives behind to march out
of their country 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. Let us not forget.
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.
Today, on the centennial of the
conclusion of the First World War we have shared some stories of the many young
people who lived, died and served from Alberni Valley. But the First World War
was sadly not the last world war.
When the second World War broke out,
Canada was a country of 11 million people and we sent more than one million of
our family members to serve in the military and of those more than 100 000
sustained casualties; 45 000 gave their lives. Many of us have friends and
family who marched out of our community and our country to offer their lives up
in service to us. My own grandmother’s brother who left the family farm to
serve overseas never did speak of the day they were surrounded by the enemy in
the war. We who have not served in that way can’t possibly even imagine what he
and others experienced on that day.
My own grandfather returned home to
Canada from California where he was working when war broke out so that he could
serve God, King and country in the Second World War. He signed up with a number
of his friends. I believe he was the only one of them that signed up together
that day who lived to see the end of the war.
I have these cards from my family
members who served in both world wars. These are some of my treasured possessions.
This one from April 2, 1917 says:
Dear Sister, Just a line to let you know
that I am alive yet, and hope to continue the same. Tell Albert when he gets
time to drop me a line. Bye, Bye, Love from Frank.
These are some of my cherished
possessions. I look at these and I remember my family. I remember all those
that risked their lives for us. I remember. I hope I never forget. I hope my
daughters never forget. I hope we never forget. Let us never forget their
sacrifices and let us not sacrifice the peace that they won for us. Let us not
forsake them and let us not forget them.
This evening at dusk across this
country, Bells of Peace will be ringing. They will be ringing to remember the
people who gave their lives while still hoping for peace. They will be ringing
as we remember how the church bells rang out across Europe on this day 100
years ago celebrating the peace that we had been praying for.
Today we remember our brothers and
sisters, our parents, our grandparents, our great-grandparents, our comrades-in-arms;
all who are veterans lived and some died so that we would not have to live
through the horrors of war again.
It is said that those who forget history
are doomed to repeat it. This evening the bells of peace will be ringing out
across this country reminding us of the terrible price of war. Today we are
wearing poppies as a pledge that we will never forget our friends, our family,
our loved ones, and our veterans who offered their lives in service to us. Let
us not forsake them. Let us not forget. Lest we forget. Lest we forget.
Let us pray.
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