Peterborough marked the 75th anniversary of D-Day with a small ceremony at Centopah at Confederation Park on Thursday morning.
Now organized by the Royal Canadian Legion, the ceremony marks the anniversary of the Allied forces landing on the shores of Normandy in France during the Second World War — considered a key turning point in the war.
Rhema Christian School has been a service participant from the start.
“I think it’s important for the kids to know the history of what has been happening, why this happens, why we have remembrance day,” said teacher Judy Wiley. “We do Remembrance Day at the school as well”
On D-Day, 340 Canadians died, including a number of men from Peterborough whose names are recorded on the cenotaph.
Graham Hart read out the names: William Askin, William John Bolster, Charles Chung, John Stanley Cooper, Fredrick John Drummond, James Fredrick Mills Hall, Joseph Thomas Heffernan, Robert Cameron Millburn, Roy Hudson Trantor, Arthur Orville Williams, and Sidney Howard Young.
Heather Caldwell attended to remember her father, who came ashore on D-Day. June 6 had an unusual impact on her family in that it affected her parents’ wedding plans.
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“They had planned to get married in the fall, September of 1944,” said Caldwell. “They heard through the grapevine that something big was coming down, so my mum had three weeks for wedding preparations (for an April wedding) then my dad was back to training for D-Day.”
Mayor Diane Therrien recalled her Dutch grandparents living through the war. The D-Day invasion was the beginning of the end of the Nazi occupation of Europe.
“My mother’s parents are Dutch. They lived through World War Two although they did not often talk about the horrors they endured, horrors that I myself find hard to imagine,” said Therrien. “My grandfather, who passed away two years ago this week, used to tell us about his school being bombed, and about the desperation and starvation of a people under siege. Canadians still hold a special place in the hearts of those in Holland and elsewhere in Europe.”
Later Thursday, the City of Peterborough honoured veteran Denis Garrod, 93, who was a member of the Royal Navy on board a landing craft during D-Day. He later moved to Peterborough to start a family and worked at General Electric.
City councillor Henry Clarke, a retired lieutenant-colonel, presented the award to Garrod on behalf of the city.
“We want to our express our appreciation and gratitude for the bravery that you showed and for the contributions that you made to Britain, to Canada and to the City of Peterborough — I thank you so much for your service,” Clarke said at the presentation held at Applewood Manor.
WATCH: Peterborough veteran recalls close call on D-Day
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