Students work to preserve history or local WW I vets

Ken Johnston

As time marches on, history often becomes lost or blurred as those who lived it pass away. However, two Rainy River High School classes have been busily reconstructing World War I history so that future generations will remember it.
Teacher Laura Armistead started the ball rolling last year when she learned of a similar project done in Smith’s Falls, Ont. She and teacher Lori-Anne Armstrong decided to get their grade 12 college and university classes to research the 30 names from WW I on the Rainy River cenotaph.
“This is an important project because of the contributions of those who died serving the First World War have been largely forgotten,” said Armistead.
The first challenge the class faced was finding out the first names of many of the soldiers on the cenotaph. “A lot of them only had initials,” said Armistead. Assuming the legion would have records of their names they approached them. However, the class quickly learned that the legion only had them recorded as initials as well. After some digging they came up with most of the names.
They then began searching for information about them through the national headquarters of the Canadian Legion (Dominion Command), Veterans Affairs, the Library and Archives of Canada and eventually living relatives of some of the soldiers. “Another challenge was the handwritten records and spelling errors in them,” said Armistead. For instance, Younberg was recorded as Youngbert.
While there are 30 names on the cenotaph, the class was only able to find records for 21 of them. It cost about $200 to get the records from the government, but the local Legion picked up the tab.
Both Armistead and Armstrong said that the local legion has been very supportive. “Joe Kaliska has provided us with loads of help, including photos for many of them,” said Armstrong.
The annual trek to the cenotaph by RRHS students will now have new meaning for 29 RRHS students. “They were amazed at how young they were and that they were willing to put their lives on the line for $15 per month,” said Armistead. “They have now developed a personal connection with them and in many cases have a face to go with the name.”
At first the students showed little interest in the project. But after the unique introduction to it, they seemed enthralled. “Laura took them to the gym, turned out the lights and subjected them to a sensory experience,” said Armstrong. Seven minutes of war sounds, such as shelling, gun fire and flashing lights was played in the dark. “Students said, ‘We did this for seven minutes, can you imagine what seven days with real shells would be like?’”
Some of the discoveries made during the research amazed the students. One soldier died accidentally from an explosion when he tried to make a cup of tea. Many survived the entire war only to be killed by the Spanish flu at its end.
The initial goal of the project was to create a wall of remembrance in the school. However, the information will also be burned to a CD-ROM for the local legion and will also be posted on a national website called the Canadian Virtual War Memorial.
“The students have developed a tremendous amount of respect for the veterans. It (Remembrance Day) is now about real people,” said Armistead.
Starting next week the Record will be running a weekly series on the veterans as gathered and presented in essay form by the students. They are also still looking for information on I. Gagnon, J.N. McInnes, L.W. Parker, W. Sanderson, A. McKenzie, R. Burnes and R. Patterson. Anyone with information or photos on these vets or ones that will appear in the Record in the coming weeks should call Laura or Lori-Anne at RRHS (807) 852-3366.