A Remembrance Day ceremony was held in downtown Vancouver Friday and thousands of people gathered to pay their respects.
Ninety-nine-year-old Merchant Navy veteran Percy Smith was honoured at the ceremony. He was still a teenager when he enlisted.
“The food was adequate but the unfortunate part was nobody told you that you may not come back and nobody told you what was going to happen,” he told Global News. “The unfortunate part of all of that is you’re not prepared when there’s an emergency or when there was a calamity at sea.”
He recalled seeing ships sunk by German U-Boats and seeing sailors in the water who they couldn’t stop to help.
“It was a nightmare just seeing and watching and hoping the next torpedo wouldn’t be for you.,” he said. “A lot of people died. You don’t last more than two minutes once you’re in the Arctic Ocean, you die. The water is so cold you can see the ice flowing.”
For Smith, he said Remembrance Day is about those who didn’t come back from conflict.
“When I look back and saw the destruction to the servicepeople who were killed in action when I look back at the collateral deaths of civilians, towns that were destroyed and the children and men who died for nothing – their names are not on the cenotaphs. No one remembers them.”
Part of the ceremony included a tribute to Canada’s most decorated Indigenous war veteran. Tommy Prince from Manitoba served as a reconnaissance expert in the Devil’s Brigade in WWII. He was recently honoured with a Canada Post stamp. Prince received 11 medals for his service in the Second World War and Korean War.
The Vancouver Bach Youth Choir and Sarabande, accompanied by the Vancouver Fire Rescue Services Band, sang a moving version of Hallelujah during the ceremony.
This was followed by the reading of the winning youth poem, in honour of the former master of ceremonies of the service, Cam Cathcart. This year’s recipient was Sapphire Peng, a grade 12 student who read her poem Red of the Poppy.
The Last Post, followed by two minutes of silence honoured Canada’s veterans who served and continue to serve their country. This part of the ceremony was then followed by the Lament, played by Sgt. Daniel Bell of the Seaforth Highlanders Pipe Band.
The Vancouver Bach Youth Choir and Sarabande again gathered to sing In Flanders Fields at the ceremony. The poem, written by John McCrae during WWI, is one of the most quoted poems from the war.
The Remembrance Day service, held at Victory Square, is the oldest continuing and annual ceremony in Vancouver, according to the city.
It first started in 1924 and is organized by the Vancouver Remembrance Day Committee, a civic volunteer group.
Every year more than 15,000 participants and citizens attend the ceremony, says the city.
Aside from the event in downtown Vancouver, Remembrance Day ceremonies were held around the province.
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