Vigils to honour war dead worthy of our rapt attention

Nov. 11 will mark the 90th anniversary of the death of Private George Lawrence Price. Just minutes before Armistice, the 25-year-old Kings County native was street fighting, on the trail of retreating German soldiers. A sniper struck him as he emerged from a cottage near Mons in France. It was 10:58 a.m.

Living in Moose Jaw during that war, Price was conscripted just four months before he died in 1918. His name will be the last one projected at 6:24 a.m. next Tuesday on the arch of the National War Memorial in Ottawa.

A series of unique vigils featuring the names of Price and all the thousands of Canadian war dead are planned here and in Britain this coming week to mark the 90th anniversary of the end of the First World War.

Beginning Tuesday, the names of the 68,000 Canadians killed during the war to end all wars will be projected during seven nights of vigil. The vigils are set for Canada House in London and begin at 5 p.m. nightly in six Canadian cities, including Halifax.

The ceremony is a significant enlargement of one held last Remembrance Day at the National War Memorial in Ottawa. It was the brainchild of actor R.H. Thomson and artist Martin Conboy to mark the 90th anniversary of the Battle of Vimy Ridge.

A theatre lighting designer and an artist who works mainly with light installations, Conboy says the impact in 2007 was phenomenal. People came with candles and stood in silence.

We are all invited to attend this watch that bears witness to the dead. The Halifax vigil will be held at St. Paul's Anglican Church.

Having heard about Conboy’s vigil of light, I decided to see if I could find out when my great uncle Hugh Munro’s name would be emblazoned. I have the CP Telegram that reached my great-grandmother Ellen in Halifax June 26, 1915.

It indicated her son had died from wounds May 25 and was buried in Bethune Cemetery. It took a whole month for her to learn of the loss.

By dint of online research, I found that the 33rd Casualty Clearing Station was in Bethune. The cemetery in this northern French town contains 3,004 British and Commonwealth graves of World War I – 55 from Canada. It looks as if great uncle Hugh died when the final German attack east of Ypres was repulsed. Ypres was where poison gas was used for the first time in the history of warfare.

Hugh’s name will be up in lights at 1:05 a.m. Nov. 7. I think I want to be there, wearing the silver cross his mother received instead of getting her boy back. We need to remember and avoid other losses.

The website for the vigil is: /1914-1918.ca/