This is the time of year that I have quite a bit going on. This year, between October 24th and November 13th, I will attend 10 events all about “Remembering”.
This morning, (Oct. 30th) I realized that there was one instance that happened, just over 16 years ago, that brought this important series of events into my life. It came about, totally unexpected.
It was 2010, and Gail, my wife, and I had been retired for 12 years. We travelled regularly, spent more time in Southampton, before returning home permanently, and I had just decided to discontinue consulting. A good time to take a vacation with substance.
We chose Europe. We would start in Holland, followed by Belgium and France. A couple of years earlier, I had met a fellow in Brampton at a curling event. We talked about travel. He told me he did a lot of military trips around WWI and WWII, and used a travel company in England that had Certified Battlefield Guides for everywhere in the world that the British Empire had fought. The company is called “In the Footsteps”. What a find this has been. I have done four trips with them. Three in Europe for WWI and WWII, and one to India for the uprisings of 1857/58.
But what happened in 2010 in Belgium had an even bigger impact on me. For three days, our guide took us on a WWI Trench Tour along the 85 miles from Ypres in Belgium to Arras in France. This is where the Canadian Expeditionary Force supported the British for four years from 1914 to 1918. This is where millions died in battle, including 66,000 Canadians.
We visited ALL of the famous sites along the way. Our first day started at the north end of the front in the bunker at Essex Farm where John McRae wrote “In Flanders Field”. What a start! Over those three days, we visited all Canadian historical sites and many others. Yes, included were St. Julian and the brooding soldier, the Newfoundland Caribou at Beaumont Hamel, Passchendaele, of course, the Vimy Memorial at Vimy Ridge, and many more monuments and cemeteries.
It was Tyne Cot that really opened my eyes to something that I never thought would happen. There are 11,968 burials there. It is the largest Commonwealth War Cemetery, Globally, and there are 35,000 unnamed on the Memorial walls.
It was in the information centre, that I got “hooked”. Along one wall there were a few computers. Our guide John sat down at one and, using his British regimental number, he signed in. He asked us if we had anyone in our family who had died in WWI. Gail said that her grandfather came home in a wheelchair, suffering horribly from poison gas. He never got out of the house and died a few months later. She said his name, John pushed enter and up on the screen came a page. It read PERRY, WILLIAM E. CORPORAL, Saskatchewan Regiment, 48th Battalion, Death 11/10/1920, Tillsonburg Cemetery.
When we got back to Southampton after a wonderful holiday in Europe, I went to the Southampton Cenotaph and the Port Elgin Memorial Park, and took pictures of the names of all those who are listed there. There are 83 named from Southampton, Port Elgin, Saugeen First Nation and Saugeen Township who died in uniform – 1 in the Boer War, 58 in WWI and 24 in WWII.
That was when I started researching and writing about those from our community who served our country. Because of that computer screen at Tyne Cot, we know the stories of many of those who served, and all those who died. We have banners hanging in our main streets for most of those who died. We have our “Highway for Peace” from Walkerton to Chesley.
The next few days, I am honoured to tell the stories of three marvelous, and brave young ladies from Saugeen Shores who served in WWI, in front-line hospitals close to the fighting. And also, there will be the stories of the 10 men from Bruce County who were awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal in WWI. This medal is second only to the Victoria Cross for Bravery and Gallantry in the face of the enemy. Of the 661,000 Canadians who served in WWI there were only 2,200 of these medals awarded, and our Bruce County boys did their share.
WE WILL REMEMBER THEM
G. William Streeter October 30, 2026
