Canadians rush to preserve veterans’ memories

They wallowed in the filth of the trenches, exchanged gunfire in European towns that became historical touchstones, and triumphantly returned home to lands far away from the wartime memories they spent years suppressing.

Now they lie in graves oceans away from Flanders Fields, their accounts of life on the front lines of the First World War forever lost to the generations who came after them.

There are no longer any surviving veterans of the war that raged between 1914 and 1918. Canada’s last living tie to “the Great War” was severed last February with the passing of John Babcock, a man who lied about his age in order to enlist but arrived in Europe too late to take part in combat.

The loss of the veterans has served as a wake-up call to those committed to preserving the most evocative and instructive accounts of life on a battlefield. As those who fought in the Second World War age and pass away, various Canadians have launched initiatives to make sure their memories are not lost.

Jeremy Diamond, director of the Historica-Dominion Institute, said crucial details of the First World War were lost when veterans died without leaving records of the horrors they witnessed.

By the time the institute’s Memory Project set out to preserve digital records of veterans telling their tales in person, very few survivors remained to share their experiences, he said.

Only two former soldiers were in a position to commit their memories to video and take a place in the project’s online archive, he said, adding the dearth of resources lent a sense of urgency to the project’s future plans.

“To lose the last link to that generation is something that we need to reflect on, and also to realize that we’re going to be in that same situation 20 years from now with our Second World War veterans,” Diamond said.

That realization hastened the project’s efforts to connect with as many soldiers from the later world war as possible and eventually resulted in a digital collection of more than 2,000 audio and video narratives.

Diamond said the timing that worked against them when compiling the First World War archive proved to be an asset when approaching survivors of later conflicts, who may have been loath to share their painful recollections while they were still fresh.

“As veterans get older, they are more willing to speak about their experiences,” he said.

“They’re far enough away from these tragic things that happened to them when they’re very young, and they feel a personal responsibility to make sure young people never forget.”

Youth have become the focus of several other efforts to commemorate the First World War.

The Vimy Foundation, an organization whose mandate is to preserve the war’s legacy, strives to educate students about the key happenings of the conflict and the significance it holds in Canadian history.

The foundation offers a scholarship program that takes a dozen Canadian high school students to tour the historic battle grounds of Belgium and France, as well as two week-long educational workshops for those who want to learn more about the era.

Foundation president David Houghton said the hundreds of students who immerse themselves in the war and its history come away with a greater understanding of what Canada’s veterans were fighting for.

“There is a realization that this was a nationwide effort,” he said. “It was French and English. Everybody was on top of the hill at the same time. Hopefully it’s a pan-Canadian, pro-Canadian message.”

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