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MERRITT HERALD TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 11, 2014 • MERRITT NEWSPAPERS
FREE
Merrittonians mark 100 years since Great War By Emily Wessel the herald
newsroom@merrittherald.com
It was standing room only at the library on Saturday evening as over 100 Merrittonians gathered for an event to commemorate the centenary of the First World War. The event began with the Merritt Community Choir performing a few songs popular during the war years. “It seems most of the popular World War One songs were not really what we’d call war-like songs because they didn’t talk about glorious deeds and a lot of fighting,” choir director Ellen Nast told the audience. “Rather, a lot of them had a focus on longing for home.” The focus on the home front was prominent in It’s a Long Way to Tipperary, a reference to the songwriter’s grandparents’ home in Ireland, and Keep the Home Fires Burning, the choir’s next number. Nast also read out lines from verses of the Canadian song The Call of the Motherland. “From the blue Pacific waters to the fair Atlantic coast; from the mountains and the prairies of the west, all Canada is stirring in a vast and mighty host, prepared to offer England of her best,” she read. The event also doubled as a book launch for From the West Coast to the Western Front, a collection of stories about soldiers from British Columbia during the Great War. The book was co-authored by Mark Forsythe, host of the CBC Radio One show B.C. Almanac, and historian Greg Dickson.
It was through Forsythe’s show that he and Dickson sourced many stories, letters and images that would come together to form their book. During the First World War, British Columbia had the highest enlistment rate per capita of any of the Canadian provinces, the authors said. The authors said Westerners made good soldiers because they could ride horses and throw ropes, were good with guns, and their experience in ranching, logging and mining made them skilled workers. More than 6,000 of the 56,000 British Columbians who went overseas during that war didn’t make it back. Dickson said he approached Forsythe with the idea for the book — one they felt was a mighty but worthy undertaking — and a year and a half later, the 264-page book is complete, though the authors acknowledged there are far more wartime stories out there. Dickson said on a stop in at the Quilchena Hotel bar, he saw a poster seeking horses for the First World War. “If that World War One story could be found even at the bar at the Quilchena Hotel, there must be something here,” Dickson said of the idea for the book. “That was really part of the inspiration.” Both authors had family members involved in the First World War, and both have made pilgrimages to Vimy Ridge to see where their relatives are buried. Many of the stories featured in the book involve the famous battle at Vimy Ridge,
Greg Dickson (left) and Mark Forsythe present the book they co-authored From the West Coast to the Western Front to over 100 people at Merritt’s library on Nov. 8. The book launch also commemorated the centenary of the First World War. Emily Wessel/Herald
the seven-kilometre ridge providing sweeping views of the battlegrounds below, which Canadians seized from enemy soldiers in April 1917. The victory came at a terrible price — over 7,000 Canadian soldiers were killed. “That’s like wiping out one of our British Columbia towns,” Forsythe said. Dickson and Forsythe noted the strong local connection to the Great War, including contributions to the battle by Kamloopsian George McLean. McLean enlisted in the Armed Forces at age 44 in 1916 and was sent to Europe. At Vimy Ridge, McLean led a solo attack on enemy troops, single-handedly taking
19 prisoners in the process. The changing role of women during wartime also featured in the presentation, with the co-authors noting hundreds of British Columbian women signed up to serve as nurses overseas, while women left at home maintained families and farms, and entered the workforce in wartime industries. Forsythe said although young and able-bodied, many professional hockey players were not allowed to enlist in the Armed Forces. “They had an important job to do here — entertaining those at home,” he said. “Many of them did [enlist], though.” Dickson noted the high rate of aboriginal people who
enlisted to serve in the war for Canada — more than 4,000 soldiers. That was an impressively high number of soldiers given the severely limited civil rights First Nations people had in their own country at that time. It would be another 42 years — well after the Second World War — until First Nations people would get the right to vote in federal elections with no conditions attached. Many members of ethnic groups treated unconstitutionally by today’s standards also enlisted and put on Canadian uniforms, including Sikhs, a group of whom were denied entry to Canada in 1914 aboard the Komagata Maru, and Chi-
nese labourers. Many soldiers who enlisted in British Columbia’s Interior were sent to Vernon to train. The training camp in Vernon was used to train thousands of soldiers for both world wars, and stands as a monument to their contributions. Today, it is still used as a training facility for Canada’s army cadets. At Saturday’s standingroom-only event, every person who was able was on his or her feet by the end of the evening as the crowd sung along with the choir to God Save the King. The event was co-sponsored by the Nicola Valley Museum and Archives and the Merritt library.
Elect MENARD, NEIL For Mayor ✔ AccouNtAbility MENARD, NEil ✔ VisioN ✔ DeDicAtioN Approved by Neil Menard contact me at 250-315-9727
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