Clinton News Record, 2015-11-04, Page 11Wednesday, November 4, 2015 • News Record 11
Beneath the Wings of Peace: The Stanley Township war memorial
The word cenotaph is
derived from the
Greek for "empty tomb." It
was an image rife with
Christian symbolism and an
apt term for the war monu-
ments in almost every town,
village and hamlet in
Canada.
At the cross roads of
Varna, the stone cenotaph
inscribed with the 14 names
of Stanley Township's dead
from the Great War stand in
quiet dignity as testimony to
the terrible toll the First
World War took on rural
Canada.
It is hard to know whether
it was loyalty, duty, or a
sense of adventure that led
them to volunteer?
Stanley Township's first
battle fatality was William
"Billy" Palmer. Although his
parents owned a farm in
Stanley Township, Billy had
been a 21 -year-old sailor
when he left in the first wave
of volunteers in August
1914. His obituary said "he
was a gallant young soldier
and went to the wars with a
gay spirit feeling he was
doing his duty to King and
Country:' He was promoted
Lance Corporal in Novem-
ber 1914 but was killed at
the Battle of 2nd Ypres
where the Canadians won
"undying fame" when the
held back the massed waves
of German attacks.
Robert Bruce Logan had
gone out west to farm in
Saskatchewan before enlist-
ing in the 28th (Northwest)
battalion on October 20,
1914. When he was killed at
age 23 on the last day of the
Battle of Loos on October
14, 1915, Logan was one of
Loos' nearly 60 000 British
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and Canadian troops who
were mown down by
machine gun and shell fire
as they advanced against
enemy barbed wire. His
mother, a widow, lived in
Hensall at the time of death.
Sergeant Walter William
Davison was the highest
ranking soldier from Stanley
Township killed. Sgt. Davi-
son claimed his occupation
as "office man" when he
enlisted in the 52nd battal-
ion. He and another Cana-
dian were killed doing
trench duty on June 7, 1916.
Private Fred Slater, 23, a
farmer, and Private Arnold
Rathwell, 20, a student, were
killed two days apart in
failed attempts to capture
Regina Trench on the
Somme River in October
1916. The Canadians even-
tually took Regina trench in
November but not before 24
000 of them became casual-
ties, nearly one-quarter of
the entire Canadian Corps'
strength.
Private George H. McBride,
24, survived the assault on
Vimy Ridge but declared
missing three days after the
Ridge's capture on April 12,
1917. McBride was officially
declared dead in May and
was probably killed when the
Germans launched ferocious
counterattacks to retake the
Ridge from the Canadians.
Records for Private Freder-
ick Richardson no longer
Royal Canadian
Legion
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Contributed photo
"Beneath the Wings of Peace":
The StanleyTownship memorial
in Varna.
exist. The Commonwealth
War Graves Commission
listed his age as 23 when he
was killed on May 3, 1917. His
name is one of over 11,000
Canadians listed on the Vimy
Memorial who have no
known grave.
Thomas Malcolm Keyes,
20, was a civilian book keeper
when he left his parents'
Varna home. Private Keyes
served in the 38th battalion
and was killed in the capture
of the towns of LaCoulotte
and Avion on June 26,
1917. James Ward, at 37 was
the oldest of the Stanley
Township men who was
killed in August 1917. The
youngest name was 19 year
old Alexander French, a
Varna area farmer, who was
wounded at Passchendaele in
October 1917. He died of his
wounds at the Etaples base
hospital in France.
Gunner William Hender-
son Forrest, 23, was a school
teacher from Varna who
enlisted in the Royal Cana-
dian Field Artillery. He was
killed operating a Trench
Mortar battery in March
1918. George Herbert
Weekes, 27, is a bit of a mys-
tery. He may have been a
farm hand hoping to start a
new life in Canada or a Home
Child working in the area who
returned to his native Eng-
land to join up. He was killed
in the great German spring
offensive of 1918.
Private William Middle-
ton McNaughton was a 19
year old student before he
enlisted in Clinton in March
1916. He volunteered for
the 161st Huron battalion
but was transferred to the
47th (British Columbia) bat-
talion. He fought in such
major battles as Vimy Ridge
and Passchendaele. On
September 27, 1918,
McNaughton's unit took the
heavily defended Canal du
Nord and broke open the
last line of German defences
on the western front.
McNaughton, however, lost
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his life.
The cenotaph's last casualty
was Private Percy
Diehl. Unlike the others,
Diehl was not a volunteer. He
was conscripted at age 20 in
late 1917 as a replacement for
one of Canada's depleted
infantry battalions. He sent to
England where, in October
1918, he 'suddenly' took ill
with a fever reaching 106
degrees. He died of bronchial
pneumonia (he may also
have been an early victim of
the Spanish Influenza) on
October 29, 1918 less than
two weeks before the war
ended.
Hundreds of family and
friends gathered to dedicate
the Stanley Township Ceno-
taph on Saturday, June 26,
1920. Colonel Hugh Barry
Combe, former commander
of the Huron battalion, and
the township reeve unveiled
ratit)&
Saturday Nov. 14
10 am -1pm
Clinton United Church
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the two Union Jacks which
draped over the 'empty
tomb.' Combe expressed the
hopes of all when he said
'these names' will 'recall to
generations yet unborn the
everlasting fame in their
great sacrifice. The local
clergy who spoke need not
have reminded their audi-
ence of the Christian themes
of sacrifice which the ceno-
taph represented.
Time may have dimin-
ished their memory but
their sacrifice to freedom's
cause lives on in eternity. As
with names on cenotaphs
across the country, "though
dead they speak" in "thun-
derous tones" to the living.
In Huron County's green
and pleasant fields, the
Varna cenotaph proclaims,
"Beneath the Wings of Peace
They Rest."
Lest we forget.
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