Dear Editor
As we approach the time of remembering those who left our lives and never returned; believing that it was necessary to fight to preserve whet is cherished in our country, Canada. We would like to inform ou that the Cenotaph Committee of Walhachin has been asked about your frequent use of the term “Walhachin Museum” instead of Soldiers’ Memorial Hall museum. As we mount an initiative to bring the promised Cenotaph to Walhachin, we ask you to please attend to this important detail.
Though the museum here, is a fine display which must not be missed, it is important to be clear that the Soldiers’ Memorial Hall remains a historical edifice deeded in perpetuity by Lord Anglesey at the end of WWI for the use of each person in this community and their progeny.
This proud building stands in memory of those brave young men, their outstanding Gordon Flowerdew (Victoria Cross) and the courage and “dogged resistance” of the Lord Strathcona’s Horse and the Royal Canadian Dragoons in the Battle for Moreuil Wood. Wikipedia this account!
Walhachin became known for having he highest percentage of loss in population of any place across Canada during that first war. The hall is a monument to this face.
But where is the Cenotaph? Many folk have asked. Cenotaphs provide a universal welcoming place for people of any country to pause for a moment and remember their dear ones and think of world peace.
A Cenotaph for the Soldiers Memorial Hall is planned to honour not only those soldiers who list their life during WWI, but also to remember those lives lost through the many battles which followed; always accompanied by the vision of a time when we “will study war no more” and learn to “just get along.”
Ineke Swanton
Walhachin Cenotaph Committee