Our unknown solider is known, and it does our hearts good to know we were able to get a photograph of a local Second World War soldier back into the hands of his family.
Chatham Voice reader Dan Kelly popped into our office (yes, we have an office and welcome visits from the public) earlier this month to show us the photo of an unknown soldier. The print was colourized and in a rather unique frame.
Kelly said the photo had sat in the attic of his parents’ home for decades. He found it and wanted to return the image to the man’s family.
Except, he could not get anywhere.
After taking the image to the Royal Canadian Legion and reaching out to the Gathering Our Heroes project, Kelly turned to The Voice.
We printed the image in our Nov. 14 paper. We initially received calls offering some advice, but had no definitive answer.
That is, until avid reader David Hebblethwaite walked through our door … with a mirror image photo; an exact duplicate right down to the frame.
Hebblethwaite said the image was of his uncle, who died with little more than a month remaining in the Second World War. He’s buried in a military cemetery in the Netherlands.
The younger Hebbelthwaite was not alive at the time of his uncle’s death; they never met.
But that didn’t mean he wasn’t moved to tears to learn someone wanted so badly to make sure his uncle’s photo was returned to his family.
Stories such as this are a reason why we at The Chatham Voice do what we do. It’s sharing information with others, linking chains in family history, bringing smiles to faces and even closure to families.
Of course, there are other important stories to tell, but ones such as that of David Alfred Hebblethwaite are priceless in our minds.
Some people think newspapers are in decline and are an obsolete form of news sharing. Naturally, we vehemently disagree.
So do our dedicated readers who remind us every week of how valuable they consider our paper as part of their lives.
And that is also why we do what we do, and deliver more than 20,000 copies of The Voice every week. We are busier than ever.
