Their Name Liveth For Evermore.
By: Captain Michael M. O'Leary (Sep 2006)
Over the summer of 2006, I embarked on a project to update the Regiment's Roll of Honour for the First World War. This came about as a result of researching a Memorial Cross acquired for my collection of Regimental memorabilia. The Memorial Cross, issued originally to the mother of a deceased soldier of the Regiment, turned out to be to a soldier who not only wasn't listed in the first volume of the Regimental History (Fetherstonhaugh, 1936), but who was also buried in Canada.
Monument to local First World War dead, located in the St. Michael's Anglican Cemetery, Coe Hill, Ontario.
Salem Pioneer Cemetery, Coe Hill, Ontario.
Engraved text on Jackson family grave marker, Salem Pioneer Cemetery, Coe Hill, Ontario.
The Cross of Sacrifice, overlooking Veterans' plots in the cemeteries of Mount Royal (foreground) and Notre-Dame-des-Neiges (background), Montréal, PQ.
The grave marker of 8174 Private Douglas L. Woods, an RCR veteran of the South African War. Mount Olivet Cemetery, Halifax, NS.
The grave marker of 9125 Sergeant Frederick C. Leach, a First World War soldier of The RCR. Fort Massey Cemetery, Halifax, NS.
The grave marker of 208145 Private George Dwire, a First World War soldier of The RCR. Mount Hermon Cemetery, Quebec City, PQ.
The grave marker of 477526 Sergeant John Leadbetter, a First World War soldier of The RCR. Fredericton Rural Cemetery (Extension), Fredericton, NB.
The grave marker of 835272 Private Stanley P. Wood, MM, a First World War soldier of The RCR. Flinton United Church Cemetery, Flinton, ON.
The grave marker of Corporal Danny D. Kristorian, a soldier of The RCR. Mount Royal Cemetery, Montréal, PQ.
The grave marker of Sergeant Major Instructor H.W.W. Figg, a soldier of The RCR (Instructor Cadre). Toronto (Prospect) Cemetery, Toronto, ON.
The grave marker of 455477 Private Fred Dunkley, a First World War soldier of The RCR. Little Lake Cemetery, Peterborough, ON.
The grave marker of 477863 Private William C. Smith, a First World War soldier of The RCR. St John's (Norway) Cemetery, Toronto, ON.
While we have a general perception that the dead of the First World War are buried in Commonwealth War Graves Commission cemeteries in Europe, the realization that a soldier of the Regiment was buried in Canada roused my curiosity. How many others might also lie at rest in Canadian soil? With that question in mind, as well as knowing others may have been missed from the Regiment's 1936 Roll of Honour, the review of the Regiment's Roll of Honour for the Great War was executed by comparing records in the following online databases:
and the information available in:
The Regimental History identifies 778 officers, NCOs and soldiers in the Regiment's Roll of Honour for the Great War published in 1936. As a result of the review, this list was increased to a total of 818 members of the Regiment.
This review also identified the location of each soldier's burial, which confirmed that 58 soldiers of the Regiment were laid to rest in Canada. These soldiers would have returned from Europe, and later died of wounds or disease related to their service. In order to be recognized by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission as a casualty of the Great War, the date of death had to be before the end of August 1921.
These 58 Royal Canadians are buried in 41 separate cemeteries in eight provinces. It should be noted that three of these Royal Canadians, though listed as buried in Canada, are also noted as "Grave or Memorial Location Unknown".
And thus I visited the first grave of our Regiment's soldiers of the First World War. In a nearly forgotten graveyard, beside an unpaved side road off a minor county road between Highways 28 and 62, Private William Jackson lies among his fellow citizens. He may be home in Canada, but he is as surely a casualty of the Great War as his fellow soldiers of the Regiment lying at rest in Flanders Fields. And yet not quite forgotten, along with other fallen soldiers from the town, William Jackson is commemorated both on the contemporary monument in the town's graveyard as well as on the much newer monument in front of Royal Canadian Legion Branch 581, Coe Hill, Ontario.
As I worked on researching Private Jackson, and updating the Great War Roll of Honour, it was an interesting realization that soldiers of the Regiment recorded in the Commonwealth War Graves Commission lie in cemeteries spread from the Veterans's Cemetery in Esquimalt to Fort Massey Cemetery in Halifax. In so many ways, from the recruiting of the 2nd (Special Service) Battalion for service in South Africa, to these soldiers of the Great War at rest across the country, to our own current Battalion nominal rolls, The Royal Canadian Regiment is truly a Canadian regiment representing all corners of our land.
While traveling on summer leave I managed to visit some of the cemeteries in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Quebec and Ontario. These ranged from large municipal cemeteries, some with extensive veterans' sections, to small plots in out of the way places, adjoining churches no longer in use, or with no evidence of a local church remaining at all. The level of maintenance of these cemeteries also varied widely which, I am sure, is more a factor of local resources than care for the deceased.
In nearly every cemetery, while searching for those soldiers of the Regiment I expected to find there, I also found other Royal Canadians. These were veterans of every period of our collective service from the South African War to recent times. Alongside them were Canadian soldiers, sailors and airmen of equally varied experience, the units noted on grave markers representing nearly complete ORBATs of Canadian armies of the 20th Century.
In some cemeteries the Veteran's section is overlooked by a Commonwealth War Graves Commission Cross of Sacrifice. Interestingly, in Montréal the Veteran's plots in the Mount Royal and Notre-Dame-des-Neiges Cemeteries are back to back on the dividing fence, and each is overlooked by the same cross of sacrifice, with its bronze sword appliqué on both sides of the stone cross. In other locations, the soldiers stones were dispersed in the cemeteries, some in family plots, others in vacant corners, almost lost to view and attention.
The soldier's grave marker, so well known from the photos of vast arrays in France and Belgium, is equally distinctive in Canadian cemeteries. To find any specific marker, such as those to the soldiers in the Commonwealth War Graves Commission list, a practiced eye and a roving approach is needed however when seeking these seemingly randomly placed markers, the markers are easily lost among more massive stones due to their relative thinness and shorter stature. The markers are also of stone of varying densities, and they have worn unequally. The engraving is also of varying depth and clarity for viewing. Some stones, though it would appear many such are not CWGC markers, but later markers on the same pattern, are now unreadable. A final frustration was the effect of light on the stones, for unless the sun was in the oblique to the stones face, making a shadow inside each engraved letter, they could defy attempts to read or photograph them clearly.
The alternate style of grave marker is a smaller flat tablet laid flush with the grass. These were usually arranged in tidy rows similar to the upright stones of the more easily recognized veterans' plots. The Prospect cemetery in Toronto is notable in that the entire veterans' section is of these flat markers, most laid in rows showing their chronological placement. But for the central Cross of Sacrifice, and 17-pounder overlooking the nearby roadway, the entire section can easily be overlooked. These tablets in some cases may also be dispersed in a Cemetery and more difficult to find.
In a few cases, upright markers have been reset as ground level tablets. The saddest cases were those where time, decreased attention, and distance from the fallen to surviving family has taken its toll. Overgrowing grass can easily hide the smaller tablet markers, and in more than a few cases effort was required to confirm to whom a marker was dedicated. Even the larger upright markers, once laid flat, can be obscured and almost hidden by the encroaching lawn.
These difficulties with individual markers aside, with the help of a very patient travelling companion, we probably viewed thousands of individual markers. Of these we found approximately 22 of the Regiment's Great War dead. In addition the names of about 130 other Royal Canadians, including many CEF soldiers who survived their war, were also photographed, transcribed and added to the alphabetical Roll of Honour.
I would encourage every Royal Canadian to visit their local Cemeteries, both those listed in the Roll of Honour list for Great War dead, and others. Each might be surprised who they find at rest in their community. Both Royal Canadians and others, decorated soldiers, generals, and the many citizens who bore arms when their country needed them to do so, and afterwards returned to their communities. The common element of a simple soldier's stone can bind us all together, across the generations of Royal Canadians who have served, and who continue to serve, Canada.
And if you do, you may find yourself visiting again, to tidy a gravesite or fully expose the obscured grave marker of a soldier who does not deserve to be forgotten with the passage of time and effects of nature. Even those who left no descendents have family remaining. We are that family.
Lest We Forget