Remembrance Day ceremony Monday
Here’s the CBC link for the Remembrance Day ceremony to go live before the 11 am minute of silence on Monday morning.
Federal offices are closed but most things are business as usual. Open and closed.
Do any readers have a story about a relative in World War I? My great‑uncle John joined the Irish Guards on October 13, 1914. Five days later he was discharged as “not likely to become an efficient soldier” and lived till 1957. So much for military glory.
Margaret 09:13 on 2024-11-11 Permalink
My grandfather returned to Scotland from World War I with some version of PTSD that stayed with him all his life. He struggled but made an good life for his family, who came to Canada and then later returned to Scotland. His brothers came as well and Quebec golf courses resulted. My father, who was born here, made another attempt to settle here and this time we stayed!
dwgs 13:28 on 2024-11-11 Permalink
Both grandfathers were in the trenches. Maternal grandfather seemingly came out all right, went back over to serve as a quartermaster in WW2. Paternal grandfather was never the same when he came back, a lifetime of PTSD that damaged the family in ways that continue to this day.
Kate 16:17 on 2024-11-11 Permalink
Multiply that by all the families that must have suffered similarly. It’s a sobering thought.
Kevin 21:03 on 2024-11-11 Permalink
One of my great-grandfathers had a leg shot off in West Flanders in 1917.
He gave his boys the name of the town as their middle names.
I don’t know much about the other side of the family, because everyone except my grandfather was killed in WWII.
My great-grandfather would have been 40 at the start of WWI and he lived in a town that had been fought over for centuries, with all the shifting borders and various ethnic groups. It was part of the German Empire at the start of the war, but following the Treaty of Versailles plebiscites it wasn’t any more.