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Remembrance

 

 REMEMBRANCE

  

 

How It Began
During the Napoleonic Wars, the poppy drew attention as the mysterious flower that bloomed over the graves of fallen soldiers.
In the 20th Century, the poppy again was widely noticed after in France and Belgium became rich in lime from rubble during the First World War. The little red flowers flourished around the graves of the war dead as they had 100 years earlier. In 1915 Captain John McCrae, a Guelph, Ontario doctor serving with the Canadian Forces Artillery, recorded this phenomenon in his famous poem, "In Flanders Fields".

Two days before the Armistice, Moina Michael, an American woman from Athens, Georgia, read the McCrae poem and was inspired to wear a poppy year-round in memory of the war dead.

In 1920, Madame E. Guérin of France visited the United States and happened to meet Miss Michael at the YMCA at Columbia University, where the latter was a volunteer. Mme. Guérin then resolved to sell handmade poppies around Armistice Day to raise money for poor children in the war-torn areas of Europe.

In 1921, Field-Marshall Earl Haig, the former Commander-in-Chief of the British Armies in France and Belgium and the principal founder of the British Legion, was sold on Mme. Guérin's fundraising idea and approved organization of the British Poppy Day Appeal by the Legion to raise money for poor and disabled veterans. The same year, Mme Guérin visited Canada, and convinced the Great War Veterans Association (G.W.V.A. - predecessor to the Royal Canadian Legion) to similarly adopt the poppy as a symbol of remembrance; in aid of fundraising.

Today, the Poppy Campaign is one of the Royal Canadian Legion's most important programs. The money raised from poppy sales provides direct assistance for ex-service people in financial distress, as well funding for medical appliances and research, home services, care facilities, and numerous other purposes.

 


 

World War I
1914 - 1918
The Battle For Vimy Ridge 
 

On a chill Easter Monday in 1917, with a blizzard blowing in their faces, the four divisions of the Canadian Corps in France did what neither the British, nor the French armies had been able to do in more than two years of fighting.

They seized and held the best-defended German bastion on the Western Front - a muddy scarp known as the Vimy Ridge. The French, who had lost 150,000 men trying to take the ridge, didn't believe it could be done. Nor did the Germans; even the British were sceptical. But the Canadians triumphed!

They went over the top at dawn. By lunchtime, most of the ridge was in their hands - at a cost of ten thousand casualties.

How could an army of civilians from a Nation without a military tradition secure the first enduring Imperial victory in thirty-two months of warfare? The answer was precisely that these men were civilians, with flexible minds unfettered by military rules.

The events leading up to the battle show how the offspring of a frontier Nation used daring and common sense to solve problems that had eluded professionals.

Vimy has become an enduring Canadian legacy marking, in most minds, a turning point in Canada's relations with the world and in the image Canadians have of themselves. It has become the historic milestone in our emergence from the colonial shadows as an independent Nation.

The Battle of Vimy Ridge was more than a Nation finding its manhood. It is equally the story of individual soldiers, trapped in the horrors of a silly and senseless war and enduring almost indescribable conditions.

Some were no older than sixteen when, in one dreadful morning, they clawed their way up those sodden, shell-torn slopes as their part in a struggle they innocently believed would make war obsolete.

Pierre Burton

 

Colonel John McCrae 

. . . a Canadian doctor, wrote the following poem after he buried one of his dear friends, Lieutenant Alex Helmer. He wrote it at his field dressing station, which still exists today in Flanders.

In the Spring of 1915, during the heaviest fighting of the second battle of the Ypres Salient in Belgian Flanders, McCrae and his dressing station were within sight of the Canadian cemetery. As the fighting continued, McCrae had his hands full caring for the wounded and he watched with dismay as the little wooden crosses daily grew more numerous. Wild poppies were already beginning to bloom around the graves. After 17 days, he sat down and wrote his poem "In Flanders Fields."

During the Second Battle of Ypres, the First Canadian Division suffered great casualties at the hands of the Germans, but managed to hold back the German advance. Four Canadians won the Victoria Cross. The Second Battle of Ypres brought the war home to Canada and served as a stepping stone to the future Canadian success at Vimy Ridge.

Through John McCrae's famous poem, we wear poppies

In Flanders Fields

             In Flanders fields the poppies blow
             Between the crosses, row on row,
             That mark our place; and in the sky
             The larks, still braveley singing, fly
             Scarce heard amid the guns below.

             We are the dead.
             short days ago We lived,
             Felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
             Loved, and were loved, and now we lie
             In Flanders fields.

             Take up our quarrel with the foe:
             To you from failing hands we throw
             The torch, be yours to hold it high.
             If ye break faith with us who die
             We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
             In Flanders fields.

John McCrae

 

  

Last Post
Ode For The Fallen

With proud thanksgiving, a mother for her children,
England 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 in drums thrill: Death august and royal
Signs 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 at home;
They have no lot in our labour of the daytime;
They sleep beyond England's foam.

But where our desires are and our hopes profound,
felt as a wellspring that is hidden from sight,
To the innermost heart of their own land they are known
As the stars that 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.

Laurence Binyon
(1869 - 1943)

 

"Pride in Our Past and
Faith in Our Future"

Poppy Trust Funds

Do you know of a veteran or a family member within the Lacombe area who could be helped by this fund? Please call the Legion and ask for the Branch President or the Branch Service Officer.

Funds are depleted over time and assistance will be provided subject to the Branch’s resources.

Who Owns the Funds ?

Poppy Funds are public funds held in trust by the Legion until spent as designed.

They must be kept in separate accounts and they must be spent, not accumulated for a rainy day. Normally, at least ninety percent of the funds collected each year should be spent before the next campaign.

What the Funds Do

The funds provide assistance for needy Canadian ex-service personnel, merchant navy personnel possessing or eligible for campaign stars or decorations, and their dependants. Also eligible are ex-service personnel of other Commonwealth and Allied countries, now residing in Canada.

Authorized uses also include:
· the cost of operating a service bureau
   or its equivalent;
· bursaries to children and grandchildren
   of ex-service personnel;
· prizes for promotional contests
   directly connected with the campaign;
· campaign costs including the purchase
   of poppies, wreaths, promotional aids,
   canvassing supplies,
   reasonable expenses of poppy chairmen
   and committee members, advertising expenses,
   and telephone, telegraph, faxes, postage
   and stationary and other sundries.

Other Uses For the Funds
· community medical appliances and medical research;
· drop-in centres for the elderly, meals on wheels, transportation and related services for veterans, their dependants and the aged;
· donations for relief of disasters declared by the Federal or provincial government;
· under certain conditions, housing for ex-service personnel and dependants of Commonwealth countries residing outside Canada,
e.g. donations to the B. E. C. L. Fund.

What the Funds Can’t Do

· cost of Branch administration;
· purchase, erection or extension of Branch premises;
· rental of property or purchase of equipment or
   furnishings for Branch use;
· public service projects such as recreation facilities;
· furnishings and non-medical equipment
   for hospital wards/rooms;
· subscriptions to newspapers or periodicals,
(including for hospitals);
· purchase of wreaths for funerals;
· transportation cost of funerals for relatives;
· any form of entertainment;
· bus tours for elderly veterans,
   or recreational pursuits;
· scholarships;
· maintenance of cemetaries;
· loans.

 

 

 

Just A Common Soldier

by Lawrence Vaincourt

He was getting old and paunchy and his hair was falling fast,

And he sat around the Legion, telling stories of the past.

Of a war that he had fought in and the deeds that he had done.

In his exploits with his buddies; they were heroes every one.

 

And tho' sometimes to his neighbours his tales became a joke,

All his Legion buddies listened for they knew whereof he spoke.

But we'll hear his tales no longer for old Bill has passed away,

And the world's a little poorer, for a soldier died today.

 

He will not be mourned by many, just his children and his wife,

For he lived an ordinary and quite uneventful life.

Held a job and raised a family, quietly going his own way,

And the world won't note his passing, though a soldier died today.

 

When politicians leave this earth, their bodies lie in state,

While thousands note their passing and proclaim that they were great.

Papers tell their whole life stories, from the time that they were young,

But the passing of a soldier goes unnoticed and unsung.

 

Is the greatest contribution to the welfare of our land

A guy who breaks his promises and cons his fellow man?

Or the ordinary fellow who, in times of war and strife,

Goes off to serve his Country and offers up his life?

 

A politician's stipend and the style in which he lives

Are sometimes disproportionate to the service that he gives,

While the ordinary soldier who offered up his all,

Is paid off with a medal and perhaps, a pension small.

 

It's so easy to forget them for it was long ago,

That the old 'Bills' of our Country went to battle but we know,

It was not the politicians with their compromise and ploys,

Who won for us the freedom that our Country now enjoys.

 

Should you find yourself in danger with your enemies at hand,

Would you want the politicians with their ever-shifting stand?

Or would you prefer the soldier who has sworn to defend His home,

His kin and Country and would fight until the end?

 

He was just a common soldier and his ranks are growing thin,

But his presence should remind us we may need his like again.

For when countries are in conflict, then we find the soldier's part

Is to clean up all the troubles that the politicians start.

 

If we cannot do him honour while he's here to hear the praise,

Then at least let's give him homage at the ending of his days.

Perhaps just a simple headline in a paper that would say.

"Our Country is in mourning, for a soldier died today."

 

 

 

CANADA REMEMBERS

The Canada Remembers Program endeavours to keep alive the achievements and sacrifices made by those who served Canada in times of war, armed conflict and peace and to promote an understanding of the significance of these efforts in Canadian life as we know it today.

As most people in Canada today have never experienced war, "Remembrance" becomes a challenging concept to incorporate. How do you remember what you haven't known? Some have been fortunate to have had relatives; grandparents, aunts, uncles, great-grand parents, who shared their stories of war and peace. Some, our newer Canadians, have sought Canada as a new home, safe from their own war-torn motherlands. We have all studied some Canadian history in schools. But the vast majority of us, especially the youth, have no first hand or even second hand knowledge of war. And thankfully so. But we can come to understand and appreciate what those who have served Canada in times of war, armed conflict and peace stand for and what they have sacrificed for their country.

We live in a wonderful country, full of opportunities and freedoms we often take for granted. You can be sure that Canadian Veterans do not take our situation for granted. Young men and women sacrificed all they knew, all the comforts, love and safety of home in order to defend the rights and freedoms of others. Some returned with permanent physical and emotional scars, bound to haunt them for the rest of their lives. Others never returned. Veterans know the price paid for our freedom and they want all Canadians to share in this understanding. In fact, now, more than ever, they are passing the torch of remembrance to us, to the people of Canada, to ensure that the memory of their efforts and sacrifices will not die with them, and that an appreciation of the values they fought for will live on in all Canadians.

Canadians have a reputation of being a peace loving nation, and this has been demonstrated time and time again when we have engaged in combat and peacekeeping operations for the sake of protecting humans rights, freedom and justice around the world. When you think of Canadian efforts in war and peace you come to realize that our desire to help was never motivated by greed, power or threats. It was in and of itself, a desire to protect human rights, all humans' rights.

So, although many of us cannot actually "remember," we owe it to those who have served to learn, to understand, and to appreciate the task they have undertaken. Generations of Canadian Veterans, through their courage, determination and sacrifice have helped to ensure that we live in a free and peaceful country. If we can understand this, how can we not pause and say "thank you" in remembrance of such an accomplishment?