Editor’s Note: This is the final piece of a three-part series on the history of the Chatham cenotaph:
Jerry Hind
Special to The Voice
In 2005 I became interested in the Great War and the contributions of the men and women from Chatham and Kent County. My research had turned up 157 names of “The Gallant Men of Chatham and Kent County” who gave up their lives, including a nurse in that first Great War.
I thought it was time that they be recognized and wanted to do it along with Remembrance Day 2008. The Legions were approached and were too busy. The Chatham-Kent Museum, who had offered help and encouragement, the Kent Regiment Chapter IODE who had been involved with the cenotaph since 1922 came on board. The Essex & Kent Scottish decided to parade to the cenotaph in the afternoon with units from Chatham and Windsor and their pipe band.
Chatham Mazda from Chatham Voice on Vimeo.
With the help of all of these groups, the cenotaph was “reborn” that Nov. 11 with over 500 citizens in attendance. The 157 names originally missed in 1923 were read out and printed in the programs along with the names that were read in 1923.
The highlight of the day for me came at the end of the service when the public could lay their wreaths on the cenotaph, and a young boy from a day-care center laid his wreath of poppies cut from construction paper on the cenotaph. At that moment I realized that “Lest We Forget” meant that his generation needed to know what that monument on Memorial Square stood for.
In 2009, the Chatham Essex & Scottish held its service of remembrance there and yearly services have been held at the Soldier’s Memorial on Memorial Square. In 2014 to commemorate the 100th Anniversary of the start of the Great War in 1914, 700 citizens attended the ceremony at the Soldier’s Memorial. The Downtown Chatham Centre volunteered its jumbotron so that the photographs of Great War veterans could be shown.
The Soldier’s Memorial and Memorial Square are once again the focal point of Remembrance Day and should continue to serve their initial purpose of causing us to stop once a year and remember and give the thanks we owe to those who gave up their today for our tomorrows.
