Warkworth Fair volunteers discover Second World War document in old barn

A rare find in the back of an old barn has turned into quite the conversation piece in the village of Warkworth, Ont.

Preparations for the annual Warkworth Fair were underway last month, and in the process, some board members were busy cleaning out an old barn when a little piece of history was found tucked in the back corner.

At one time the barn had served as the temporary meeting space for Legion members after a fire closed its main headquarters, and is why members believe the document had been left behind there.

“We were contacted by the president of the fair board and he had found something that might be of interest to us and so he called us down to have a look at it,” said Roger Brummell, service officer with the Warkworth Legion.

Once they blew the dust off the document, they realized it was a list of blood donors from 1945.

The Red Cross Honour Roll was published during the Second World War and showed a list of blood donors from the area who all rolled all up their sleeves to help the cause.

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The Percy Agricultural Society who runs the fair took time to fully restore the document and had it framed and Tuesday night they presented it back to the Warkworth Legion.

“I’ve lived here for over 50 years and I’ve met a lot of these people on the list and they were great businessmen and some of them were the founding charter members of the branch,” said Brummell. “I was pretty happy and excited when I first saw it.”

The next plan is to find the proper place to hang the Honour Roll and Brummell says the Legion members will likely vote on that.

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In the meantime, the branch is thrilled this document was saved as it tells a story of those days.

“This is as old as any document we have in here,” said Brummell. “This is the history of the village and these people were so committed to the war effort and the betterment of the community,” said Brummell.