CARSTAIRS - Residents of all and including many families with young children attended the Remembrance Day ceremony put on by the Carstairs & District Legion Branch #53 at the Hugh Sutherland School.
The service saw musical performances, scripture readings, hymns, and the laying of memorial wreaths by community groups, organizations, and individuals. The service took place on the 70th anniversary of the end of the Korean War (1950-53).
Carstairs mayor Lance Colby made a short address during the service, reminding residents of the need to thank and commend those who have given military service to Canada.
“Today is the day that all of us have to remember that others laid down their lives for us,” Colby said. “We need to be thankful to all of them for our life in a free county. We owe it to all who have fallen and all who serve and have served.
“This country is founded by people who always put themselves forward and gave us the ability to live free, to say what we feel and to worship God in any light we see. I think we owe the veterans a great deal of thanks.”
Pastor Don Short spoke about the August 1942 battle of Dieppe, where more than 900 Canadian soldiers died in a single day of combat.
“Dieppe was really necessary because it was through that failure that the allies learned valuable lessons that prepared them for what would happen two years later in what we all know as D-Day,” said Short.
“Today we remember those who gave their lives to protect our lives. We remember the heroic sacrifice that so many made so that we can enjoy this world that we live in today.”
The service also saw Royal Canadian Legion Branch #53 president and MC Ron Walker read out the poem titled A Sailor’s Grave, which included the lines: “How do you mark the resting place of the ones that are buried at sea? /They are no less the fallen/Than the others that are interred on the land/Though their graves are unadorned.”
The First World War poem In Flander's Fields was also read out during the service.
Wreaths of remembrance were laid by elected officials, members of the Canadian Armed Force, the RCMP and local peace officers, the legion and ladies auxiliary, firefighters, students, service organization members, First Nations representatives and others.
Memorial Silver Cross Mother Susan Curnow also laid a wreath of remembrance. Her son Richard was a Canadian army master corporal who died in a military training accident at age 25.
There are 29 names on Carstairs’ Honour Roll of those who died in the First World War, the Second World War, the Korean War, and Afghanistan.
