To Vince Richard Seymour, his father's military career during both world wars is a mystery.The elder Seymour – Vince – never told his son about the battles he fought or any other memories from war.“They were buried and he wanted them to stay that way. Probably suffering from PTSD,” said Vince Richard, service officer and first vice-president for the Olds Royal Canadian Legion #105. “The days and days of shelling they went through and things like that before an offensive.”This year marks the 100th anniversary of the Great War, with Great Britain declaring war against Germany on Aug. 4, 1914.Canada does not have any living First World War veterans so it's up to relatives and descendents like Vince Richard, now 71, to tell their stories – or as much of them as possible.According to Vince Richard, his father was born in 1899 in Liverpool and entered the British Army at age 14 as a drummer boy.Vince was in the trenches by the age of 16, during the early years of the war, serving in the infantry with the Lancashire Fusiliers and later transferring to the Royal Northumberland Fusiliers.In 1917, he was gassed and spent two years in hospital, ending his tour of duty in the First World War, Vince Richard said.After the war, Vince emigrated to the U.S. and then arrived in Canada, eventually settling in Edmonton.An electrician by trade, he joined the Royal Canadian Engineers in 1941 after the Second World War broke out and then guarded German prisoners of war when he transferred to the Veteran's Guard, Vince Richard said.He said his father's military career wrapped up when the German prisoners were repatriated in 1946, finishing with a rank of company sergeant major.After that, he worked as an electrician at University of Alberta Hospital in Edmonton until about 1964.Vince Richard himself spent 15 years in the military from 1960 to 1975, a career choice his father disapproved of.“He was actually very much against it,” he said. “He said something like, don't be foolish. There's better things to do than that … but that was about all. He didn't really get upset or scream or yell or anything like that.”His grandmother on the other hand, was more vocal about her objections, having seen the toll two wars took on Vince.“Right after the war, when he got out of hospital, he must have been in pretty bad shape because she alluded to, look what it did to your father and things like this,” he said.Vince Richard said his father had chronic lung problems, bronchitis and infections resulting from being gassed during the First World War.In retirement, Vince played the accordion, stayed involved with the legion and entertained other veterans at the hospital.According to Vince Richard, his father was also a handyman.“I remember he built us a playhouse that my cousins and I, we spent hours and hours in there,” he said. “And he built us a really fancy swing set and things of that nature.”He believes Vince died in 1998, at about 99 years old in Edmonton.Vince Richard never got the details about his father's service, not that he was ever in the mood to share.“I think he still suffered to some degree. He wasn't constantly happy. Yes, he had times when he was happy, but there's lots of times when he'd be very quiet and you knew there was something bothering him. He'd just sort of clam up. He didn't want to talk to anybody. So there were those times too.”[email protected]
