Today I paid a visit to the grave of a Canadian soldier in my family to honour him and to mark the centenary of his passing. His name was John Lemuel Waddell McDowell, "Lemmie" to family members, born on August 14, 1878 and died on November 22, 1917 at age 39. He volunteered for the Canadian Expeditionary Force in 1916 and served as a sapper (military engineer) trenches in France in August and was at Ypres, Somme and Vimy Ridge. I'm probably the first ever from my family to visit his grave, so it's something long due him. It's touching seeing those headstones and reading the inscriptions, including his:
THESE ARE THEY
WHICH CAME OUT
OF GREAT TRIBULATION
Each Remembrance Day (mine most often marked at the UofA Butterdome, we recite a promise embedded in one stanza of a poem, the Ode of Remembrance:
They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning,
We will remember them.
It's strange to 'remember' those whom we've never known; we only can do so if we come to know them. Read their accounts, listen to their stories. Sometimes we need to piece together those stories for ourselves. In doing so, I've been slowly getting to know this one soldier. I have a fragmentary profile of him on WikiTree.
Getting to know him has made me see more clearly the heartbreak and pain of war. Letters and notes between him and his sister and tales of my eldest aunt, who knew my great grandmother, tell of sorrow that marks a family for life.
Seeing even one cemetery of graves, you start to feel it multiplied over. So much loss, yet it was done with a purpose and as a sacrifice.
If you're ever travelling in the UK (especially England), Belgium, France, or the Netherlands, take some time to visit one of the many Commonwealth War Graves. Perhaps you have a connection to one of them.
It's not too hard to find out more. This year the Library and Archives of Canada have nearly completed their effort to digitize all of the personnel files of those who served in WWI, which you can access here.
Thanks for reading.
And thanks to those who have helped with figuring things out along the way here.
