HomeMy WebLinkAboutClinton News Record, 2016-09-28, Page 7Huron County remembers
those it lost in the Great
War with poppy art
installation in Goderich
Darryl Coote
Postmedia Network
On Oct. 9, 1916, the 777 Huron
County men of the 161st Battalion
dined, drank and danced at the Bed-
ford Hotel and the Oddfellows Hall in
Goderich, many for the last time.
The following day, Thanksgiving Day,
they marched from the courthouse
down East St. to the Grand Turkey Rail-
way Station with the Great War in
France being their final destination.
The 161st would fight in Ypres and
Vimy Ridge, Amiens and Lens -- some
of the most heinous battles of the war.
And of those 777 men, 551 would
never return.
To commemorate the 100th year
since the 161st Battalion deployed for
the First World War and to ensure their
sacrifices would be remembered, 551
ceramic poppies were installed at the
foot of the Goderich Cenotaph.
Over 200 people attended the unveil-
ing ceremony Sept. 22 where dignitar-
ies Goderich Mayor Kevin Morrison,
Huron County Warden Paul Gowing
and Huron Bruce MP Ben Lobb's repre-
sentative Bill Strong spoke of the
importance of this occasion.
"We're here today to honour our
heroes, to remember their achieve-
ments, their courage, their dedication,
and to say thank you for their sacri-
fices," Warden Gowing said in his
address.
The speeches were followed by a
reading of the iconic First World War
poem "In Flanders Field" written by
Canadian John McCrae and a moment
of silence.
Then the public was encouraged to
walk among the art installation that
first started two years ago with a
desire to do something special to
mark this day in Huron County
history.
Bonnie Sitter, a member of the
Huron Arts and Heritage Network
that produced the piece with the Cul-
tural Services Department of the
County of Huron, is credited with
bringing the importance of Thanks-
giving 1916 to the attention of her
group.
"I just thought it was an important
day in history to remember, and so a
committee was formed and the ideas
were tossed around about what to do
to make it special," she told The Signal
Star standing before the ceramic
poppies.
The inspiration for this project
came from a similar 2014 installation
of roughly 880,000 poppies called
"Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red"
that was on display in London, Eng-
land, to commemorate the Common-
wealth war dead during the Great
War.
She contacted her friend and local
artists Ruth Anne Merner to figure out
the logistics of making so many pop-
pies to withstand the elements.
Each poppy starts as a pound of
clay, Sitter said, and over a hundred
volunteers helped to create the pop-
pies, which, like the lives they repre-
sent, are individual.
"Each one is unique. You won't find
one the same," Sitter said.
Many hands were involved in the
creation of a single poppy, she said.
Artist Merner said a total 125 peo-
ple volunteered to help, adding that
she spent all winter coming up with a
way the poppies could be constructed
by volunteers unfamiliar with work-
ing with clay.
"Everybody just worked at one
thing," she said. "Some people cut the
piece out, some people rolled the clay
out, some people smoothed the
edges, and eventually as it got down
the [assembly] line we curled the pet-
als to make the shape of the poppy."
It took three months to make the
poppies, she said.
"I'm absolutely thrilled, just
thrilled;" she said of the outcome.
The flowers are meticulously
installed in rows of descending height
from the courthouse so as one comes
up East St. the poppies appear to be
rising.
Sitter added that this installation
has meaning for most Huron County
natives, for if they look into their
recent family history they are proba-
bly connected to at least one life rep-
resented in the field of poppies.
CONTINUED > PAGE 8
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Wednesday, September 28, 2016 • News Record 7
Photos by Darryl Coote Postmedia Network
Four guards of the 4th Battalion of the Royal Canadian Regiment in London stand at arms by the Goderich
Cenotaph during the unveiling ceremony of the 551 ceramic poppies that represent the lives Huron County lost
during the First World War.
Center, Bonnie Sitter signing during the national anthem. Artist Ruth Anne Merner.
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