WATCH: The Campbell River Genealogy Society has marked veteran’s graves at two local cemeteries. Dean Stoltz reports.
Traffic goes by the old Campbell River cemetery on Highway 19 everyday, but few people might realize that 81 veterans of the both World Wars are buried there.
“At the time Campbell River was just a small logging community,” said Campbell River Legion Branch 137 President Rosaire Bernard. “There was actually not a heck of a lot here and to show the valour that these men portrayed going out there, some came back some didn’t.”
For the last four years, the Campbell River Genealogy Society has been marking the graves of local vets with Canadian flags.
But now placards also mark the gravestones of First World War veterans telling a bit of their personal story.
“So for example right here we have a gentleman by the name of Gardiner, Randolph Gardiner and we see here it shows a picture of him, it shows his service number and on the back it shows when he was born, everything about him with his military history,” explained Bernard.
“We put a little bit of a story on the placards about where they were when the enlisted, what their family situation was and what type of work they did, and if there’s anything that we can find notable about their military service and if we can get the records then we will include that,” said Janice Wilkin of the Campbell River Genealogy Society.
“It shows that the person lived and died for us,” added Bernard. “It was an actual person, it wasn’t just the name on a piece of paper.”
A total of 213 Canadian veterans are buried at both Campbell River cemeteries.
“The people who went before us to preserve our freedom as it is today,” said Bernard.
Dean Stoltz
