Granddaughter will place Silver Cross Wreath

Gertrude Elizabeth Singer had five sons who fought overseas, and two never returned. Her eldest fought and died in the First World War, and her youngest during the Second. Yet, she was never selected to place a wreath as a Silver Cross Mother. Now, more than 50 years since her death, Singer’s granddaughter will represent her during this year’s Remembrance Day ceremony in Windsor, Nov. 11.

Bengula “Sis” Phillips is the daughter of Alan Bruce Singer, the youngest of Singer’s five sons. He was laid to rest in Europe in 1944; Phillips was only seven years old at the time. Her Uncle Norman Graham Singer was gassed overseas and died later in the Kentville Sanatorium.

Three years ago, Phillips was asked to lay a wreath in memory of her father, but says this time is different. “I’m doing this for her, for Gran. That's what it’s really all about, just knowing I have done something special for my grandmother.”

Back then, she said it was really something to have five men from the same family serve overseas, “especially in a small town like this, that many men going to war is significant.”

Phillips has been a member of the Royal Canadian Legion Branch 9 in Windsor for 24 years and has chaired the Silver Cross committee.

Numbers declining

Phillips said the original list is dwindling, “you just can’t find the wives and mothers of Second World War veterans; that time has passed. Now we look for any surviving female relative. I’ve had sisters place for brothers.”

She noted, however, there is new list of Silver Cross Mothers in the making. “It’s a tradition that unfortunately will continue as long as there is war.”

Phillips doesn’t remember much about her father and said times were tough for her mother who was left to raise three children on her own. “Mom didn't have much money to go on, it was a terrible loss. I never knew what it would be like to have a father.”

She does remember taking walks across the old Windsor Bridge with her father and sister, Barbara. “I also remember him peeling turnip,” she laughs. “I don't know why, I guess I was meant to remember some things.”

Singer was also a hockey player, his team the Bankers Hockey Team won the championships back in 1937, the year Phillips was born.

“It was Gran who named me Bengula,” Phillips said. “When my mother hear the name she wasn't very impressed, but Dad insisted we stick with it.”

She has better memories of her grandmother, “She was just so sweet. She used to knit us socks and mittens and come to visit and sit by the fire.”

Never placed Wreath

As a widow, her mother never took the opportunity to place the Silver Cross Wreath, either. “When you loose your husband so young, you eventually meet someone else; you have to move on.”

Although far from home, Phillips was able to visit her father’s grave for the first time in 1971, the last year the Legion was able to send family members to overseas cemetery. “They are all over there, none of them were sent home, they buried them there.”

She said that first moment seeing his grave was very emotional. “It’s like I came closer to him then, knowing he was there.”

The cemetery, she noted, is beautiful, “the Dutch keep the grave sites immaculate; they are so proud of the Canadians that liberated them during the war.”

She has returned to the site twice since then and met some life-long friends. “You just sort of bond with the people beside you because you are all going through the same thing.”

Phillips lays a spray of poppies on her grandmother’s grave in Windsor every Nov. 11. This year will be no exception. “She lost two sons, I can’t imagine what that would have been like. It does my heart good to do this for her.”