Three years ago six family members of the late Robert Earl Anger, a First World War veteran who died in Innisfail 30 years ago, went to Europe to take a solemn but heartfelt tour of the battlefields.
They wanted to see what their father and grandfather, who never talked about his sacrifice during the horrific battles of Vimy Ridge and Passchendaele, had to endure.
“We have no idea of what these soldiers went through, the emotions that they felt, the emotions and memories they hid away when they returned home,” said grandson Dusty Fay of Caroline, where Anger farmed for almost 25 years before moving to Innisfail.
Anger enlisted in the Canadian Overseas Expeditionary Force's
188th Battalion in Radisson, Sask., on April 6, 1916. He was just 18. Once overseas seven months later, he was transferred to the 28th (Northwest) Battalion. Anger was one of thousands of heroic Canadian soldiers who successfully stormed Vimy Ridge, and then went on to Passchendaele.
The children and grandchildren of Robert Earl Anger came back from the tour with a greater understanding of the courage and perseverance the young Saskatchewan farm boy had to muster to get through that living hell.
That new understanding was largely due to the devotion of the Genesta Battlefield Club, a committed and passionate group of European battlefield experts who organized the family tour through the fields of First World War combat.
“There is this amazing woman named Mary Ellen Freeman from England and her friend Mark Banning and they work on the side doing tours of battlefields,” said granddaughter Crystal Oliver of the Genesta members. “They are battlefield passionate people that do these tours, and when they found out we were going over, Mary did over a year's worth of research to track my grandfather's footsteps, and when we went in 2013 we walked the footsteps.”
Three years later on Aug. 17 those footsteps of heroism came back back to the Innisfail Cemetery. The sacrifice of Pte. Robert Earl Anger, who had an Innisfail Royal Canadian Legion honour guard ceremony in 1986 after passing away, was rededicated. Almost 50 family members from Caroline and Innisfail, as well as a new honour guard from the Innisfail legion, came to the Aug. 17 memorial service. It was also attended by Royal Air Force veteran and Genesta member Chris Stephens, who met the family during its battlefield tour in 2013.
Stephens, who came to Innisfail from Oxford, England with his wife Diane, said it was special for him to attend the local service because he can't physically honour the service of his grandfather William James Charman, who fought in the Great War's Battle of the Somme, because he has no known final resting place.
“Anyone who fought in the First World War is a hero. There is no doubt about that whatsoever. They were young men who gave everything. It was an honour to do it,” said Stephens, who received the blessing from the Royal British Legion to lay a Somme Wreath at the Innisfail service. “I think it is paying respect to Canadian soldiers because the people over here obviously could not afford to go over to the battlefields back in those days, 6,000 miles to get back to France and Belgium.”
The moving 40-minute service, beginning with piper Michael McLetchie playing the Battle of the Somme, was officiated by legion Padre Bud Sargent. The service then heard an opening address and obituary by Oliver and Fay. There was a reading of In Flanders Field, followed by the placing of the wreath by Stephens. And then there was the closing prayer, and the presentation of the Canadian flag to Anger's 74-year-old son John.
As the service came to an end, Sargent invited everyone to lay a poppy on a legion white cross, a ritual at veteran funerals. One by one they placed their poppies with a promise to never forget. There were 49.
“There are so many generations that don't understand and they forget so easily,” said Oliver. “I was around and so was Dusty when my grandfather was here but when that generation passed away the younger generations lose it a little bit.
“This is kind of a way to remind everyone that the peace that we have in this wonderful world we are living in and everything we have is to be attributed to these men and women.”
Crystal Oliver, granddaughter of Pte. Robert Earl Anger
"There are so many generations that don't understand and they forget so easily. This is kind of a way to remind everyone that the peace that we have in this wonderful world we are living in and everything we have is to be attributed to these men and women."
