Vimy Ridge Day Candlelight Vigil 2015

On Thursday, April 9, Abbotsford held its fifth annual Vimy Ridge Day Candlelight Vigil to commemorate the first day of that battle in 1917 and to remember those local Veterans who were at Vimy Ridge or other World War One battles and also allow local residents who had family members who were veterans of World War One conflicts.  As well, we like to make the community and especially its youth aware of this important event in Canada’s History so that the memory and our gratitude to our local heroes is not forgotten. This year there were about four hundred participants.

Initially the impetus for the Abbotsford ceremony came in 2011 from Peter Slade, Sheila Ann Slade, Doug Matthews and Peter Welford of Branch 15 of the Royal Canadian Legion, with advice from Walter Poustie, our Fraser Valley Zone Commander, and assisted by Barbara Roberts of the City of Abbotsford, commander Ted Bowman and the Royal Canadian Air Cadets 861 Silverfox Squadron, the Abbotsford Police, Abbotsford Fire and Rescue, and was supported by Mayor George Peary and Councillor Patricia Ross, Ed Fast MP, John van Dongen MLA, and Mike De Jong MLA.  The initial ceremony was compèred by Don Stevenson, our long-time Master of Ceremonies.

Since then, it has been to our immense satisfaction that the

ceremony has become established itself as an annual event,with Reverend Art Turnbull taking over as Master of Ceremonies and chairman of a committee that now boasts enthusiastic volunteers such as Veronica Tod and Alanna Carmichael and full support from Melanie Taylor, now commander of the Royal Canadian Air Cadets and Barbara Roberts who is backed by the full support of the City of Abbotsford, its Mayors and attendance by our MP and MLAs .

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This year we were blessed by warm weather with sunshine and a beautiful rainbow though an ominous dark cloud later gave us a light sprinkling of rain, the first we have seen since 2011 for this commemoration.  In our quest for more WWI veterans or local descendants of WWI veterans, we were pleased to locate the names of seven more  veterans and/or local descendants.  We were especially pleased to have First Nations Veterans from the local Stó:lō Nation; a chance meeting between Sheila Ann Slade and Carman McKay of Coast Salish Adult Education at The Reach, lead to Carman locating Private William Allard and Private Ovid George Allard , who joined the Canadian Expeditionary Force in 1914.  Carman and Dawn placed the candle for the Allards and treated us to some drumming.  (See below, to the right).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Also a visit by Art and Peter to the Exhibition at the Sikh Temple enabled a meeting with Abbotsford resident Navneet Sidhu whose ancestor Risaldar Major Bachan Singh OBI fought with the Bengal Lancers in the Middle East campaigns and who was honoured this year.

Another person they met at the same exhibition was local historian Michael Des Mazes, whose grandfather Lieutenant Raoul Des Mazes immigrated from France to BC then joined the French Army and fought at the infamous Battle of Verdun, later he joined British Army Intelligence and won the Military Cross.  Raoul returned to BC and moved his family to Abbotsford, so he is truly an Abbotsford Veteran. Michael was present to place the candle, dressed in authentic uniform of the Canadian Expeditionary Force, 4th Division.  (See below to the left).

An especially poignant moment this year was the talk given by Deputy Mayor and Councillor Patricia Ross about her grandfather, Private George Crosson, who was part of the unit that had the hardest part of the Battle of Vimy Ridge, in the taking of “The Pimple”, which involved hand-to-hand combat.  We were given an insight into the aspect of PTSD, which was certainly not understood at the time of WWI.

For the first time there were colour parties from Legions other than Abbotsford, music was supplied by the band of the Air Cadets and there was excellent solo work from the piper and bugler.  There was singing to “The Maple Leaf Forever” and the hymns “Eternal Father Strong To Save” and “Abide With Me”, albeit a couple of verses short.

The planning committee were most appreciative for all the participants, attendees, and for the volunteers and the City of Abbotsford and the all the Organizations who supported and participated in the event.  We look forward to doing it again in 2016.

The ceremony closed after dusk, so that the true effect of the candles could be experienced, as intended for a “Candlelight Vigil”.

 

 

Other photos taken at the ceremony: