Jim Evans introduced speaker Robert Watt, a former Chief Herald of Canada (1988-2007). Rob is an expert in symbolism and brought will him personal stories and insight into the symbols we use for Remembrance Day.
Rob expressed delight to be here with our Rotary Club. [as of Tuesday it will be] just 3 days until we join our fellow citizens in Remembrance Day. It is important that we take note of this important anniversary – a sacred special day. We might find it easier to take account of this day if we take a few moments to understand where some of the key elements come from.
As a boy Rob remembers when he stood with his dad, who was a WWII vet at Remembrance Day ceremonies in their community. It was an important family tradition to take part in honouring those who fought in the 1st & 2nd world wars. As a boy, he didn’t understand why, but knew it was important to be there. Rob’s father and grandfather were soldiers in WWII and WWI respectively.
November 11th has been set aside for over 100 years as a national day of Remembrance. The awful carnage 1914 -1918 of WWI; such incredibly high cost. At the time Canada was a self-governing dominion but did not control its foreign affairs. When Britain went to war, Canada was automatically included as were other commonwealth countries. The scale of Canada’s contributions was enormous. More the 650K Canadians and Newfoundlanders (at the time Newfoundland was separate and not part of Canada) served in uniform. This was a time when our population was slightly over 8M. By the end of the war 66K soldiers had been killed, 172K wounded. In addition, there were the impacts on all those who remained at home, mostly women and children. Losses at that scale gave way to a desire to find a way to mark the loss and honour all who perished, as well as those who remained.
The 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month in 1918 was the armistice between allied forces and imperial Germany. The agreement was signed. In the time that followed, work was done as to how we best remember those who made the ultimate sacrifice. Most of this work was done centered in London, and the results impacted all around the world.
They wanted to devise a monument that would represent the thousands upon thousands who fell. The 1st commemorative monument – cenotaph in Whitehall, London, was built in 1919, designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens. The idea was to come up with something monumental yet simple for those who gather to remember. The name “cenotaph” comes from Greek, meaning ‘empty tomb’. The design was and is striking in its simplicity and sophistication. It was universal in its concept for all races and religions and led to dozens of cenotaphs around the globe. “The glorious dead” is the inscription referring to all who lost their lives in the two world wars and later conflicts. Lest we forget.
The idea is, of course, that a sacrifice on that scale calls for an appropriate response. The permanent cenotaph was built in Portland stone and was unveiled by King George V on November 11, 1920. In the same ceremony, the remains of an anonymous British soldier, exhumed from a war cemetery in France, were interred in Westminster Abbey to form the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.
The West Vancouver Memorial Arch, on Marine Dr., was unveiled in 1925 in memory of West Vancouver residents who lost their lives in WWI & II.
WWII saw another huge Canadian contribution. Now the population had grown from 8M to 11M, over 1M served in the 3 main forces – army, air force, and navy. Over 44K lives were lost by the time the war ended on September 2, 1945, V-J Day (Victory over Japan).
These structures are key in remembering 0 WWI, WWII, Vietnam, Afghanistan, and all other conflicts.
Not all memorials are cenotaphs. One of the most famous is the Menin Gate Memorial to the Missing at Ypres, Belgium. The location is where some great battles were fought being in the path of Germany’s planned sweep across Belgium. Unveiled in 1927, it is a place where soldiers, unidentified, who died in those battles are remembered.
Names of 54,395 soldiers are inscribed on the inside of the building. A cut off date of August 15, 1917 was chosen. 34,984 names of those who went missing after this date are inscribed on the Tyne Cot Memorial to the Missing and missing New Zealand and Newfoundland soldiers are commemorated in different memorials. At Menin Gate, each evening at 20:00 a bugler plays the Last Post. With exception of the time during active German occupation in WWII this ceremony has been carried on uninterrupted since July 2, 1928. The Last Post is played to mark the end of the day’s activities. The Last Post is now a symbol of final farewell in many Remembrance Day ceremonies. The following Reveille, or Rouse, is played to signal the beginning of the day, or in terms of Remembrance Day ceremonies, at the end of the act of homage to those fallen.
Signs of destruction are everywhen in the city. The determination of the citizens to rebuild and resurrect the building was incredible. It is in Ypres that the connection between poppies and remembrance started.
John McCrae, born in 1872 in Guelph, Ontario, was a physician trained at McGill University. He died of pneumonia and meningitis in France in January 1918. He was enlisted as a medical officer in the WWI. In 1915 after caring for wounded Allied and Canadian troops and losing a close friend for whom McCrae conducted his funeral, as there was no cleric available, he wrote the poem In Flanders Fields. It was first published anonymously in 1915 and has been admired from that day on. It is a symbol of the terrible loss, and the grief associated.
A lady found McCrae’s words especially moving. She adopted the poppy as the symbol of her campaign to raise money to support vets. Poppy has become the symbol of sacrifice. The words of the poem seem especially moving when you visit the spot where they were 1st written. At Essex farm there is a memorial to Lt. Col. John McCrae. It is incredibly moving to see the poem in McCrae’s handwriting as shown on a local plaque.
The Canadian National Vimy Ridge Memorial in France is Canada’s largest overseas national memorial. It is a 7 km stretch of high ground that was fought over at a cost of thousands of lives. This monument is the largest and most impressive monument honouring those who fought in the WWI. It is inscribed with the names of 11,285 Canadians who were killed on French soil and have no known graves.
It is made of Croatian limestone that gives it its beautiful colour. The central pillars are over 90 feet high above the base. It was originally unveiled in 1936, survived the 2nd World War (Hitler was photographed when he visited it in 1940) despite fears that German forces would destroy it after France’s surrender. It had some extensive restoration work done and was newly unveiled in 2007.
Visiting Vimy Ridge is something all Canadian should try to do. It is an unexpectedly moving experience, even for those with no direct experience or connection to anyone who fought.
While Vimy stands out because of its size, there are many smaller memorials around France and Belgium. It is the Commonwealth War Graves Commission is responsible for the care and upkeep of millions of soldiers’ graves worldwide.
In closing, when wearing a poppy now – the least one can do, think of our relatives who fought, our ancestors who fought, and to the larger benefits we have experienced as a result of their strength and sacrifice.
