ELNORA - Cemetery officials in the village are seeking the public's help to identify the remains of an unknown military veteran in a fragile wooden urn that was uncovered in late spring.
Pat Buckland, a resident of the village who is an Elnora Cemetery board member, as well as its treasurer, said the urn was discovered on June 17 during the process of preparing for a burial in the cemetery's Field of Honour.
"It (gravesite) was already reserved by the people who we were digging the plot for," said Buckland. "It is a mystery. Someone was basically buried illegally, but we don't care. That's all right. We just want to know who it is and give him a proper name."
When the fragile wooden urn, which measured about 13 centimetres by 10 centimetres, was uncovered, cemetery officials found a plastic bag of ashes inside lying on top of a bed of s-shaped Styrofoam packing peanuts, which they soon discovered were first commercially available around 1965.
"So it would have had to have been buried sometime after that, and of course wood would rot very fast especially with all the rain and stuff we've had over the years," she said, noting the urn began to fall apart shortly after it was discovered, and has since been reburied.
Equally mysterious was that the urn also had Lest we Forget stamped across the top above a cross. A poppy is etched at the bottom. To the left of the lower part of the cross is what appears to be a man or even a Mountie on a horse.
"It could be an RCMP thing. We are not too sure," said Buckland. "The carving or picture looked like a person on a horse. It makes you wonder -- is he RCMP? Was he in something to do with a war? We don't know. Maybe he became an RCMP after. We don't know. We don't have a clue. It looks like one of the RCMP's stamps that is on the left-hand side of the urn. And the Lest We Forget is usually for Field of Honour or people who have been in a war."
Adding to the mystery is a partially illegible verse stamped in the urn under the cross.
"We thought it was In Flanders Fields, but it's not," she said. "Some of the words we can't make out but some of them we could make out, and it is not In Flanders Fields. Somebody had written a verse and had it stamped or burned in there or something."
Buckland, who is also the cemetery's record-keeper, also secured records dating back to 1918 but everyone listed was accounted for in the cemetery.
"We have no idea who it is," said Buckland, whose board is getting assistance from the local legion to sort out the mystery. "But I did hear from the sister whose brother is interred there and she said, 'just leave him there, right where he is.'
"So if we can figure out who he is then we will put a little ground plaque over on the northeast corner of his plot, and she (sister) said that was fine," she added. "Or we don't know who it is after six months then we will probably put in just an unknown soldier thing and honour him somehow because he was in the Field of Honour."
If any citizen has information that could help Elnora Cemetery officials with the mystery he or she is requested to call 403-773-2282.
