Commonwealth War Graves Commission wants to share your veteran tributes


BY COLE PARKINSON insight magazine


(CWGC) has been honouring and ensuring veterans from WWI and WWII are not forgot- ten since 1917. Original work for the group began with building and maintaining cemeteries and memorials across more than 150 countries and also managing the official casualty data- base archives for member nations. With a division dedicated to Canadian memorials,the CWGC has graves all across Canada including a number in the Taber area. “We’re an area of the Commonwealth War


W


Graves, so as a start point, the Commonwealth War Graves are across the


hile not necessarily an organization in the main- stream’s attention, the Commonwealth War Graves Commission


world.We are in over 150 countries and we care and commemorate over 1.7 million war dead.In Canada,we are actually Canada and the Americas,so we have Canada and the area all the way down to the Falkland Islands in South America. So,some 30 countries are in our area.The majority of the war dead that we care for are in Canada,not as many as over in Europe. In the total area we have just under 21,000 war dead that we care for, of which, 19,000 of those are in Canada,” explained David Loveridge,CWGC area direc- tor for Canada and the Americas.“We are also partners with Veterans Affairs Canada so we help them maintain the other veteran graves which is about another 228,000.Some peo- ple would say there are a lot more veteran graves out there and that is true, but the ones that are war dead, the ones that we care for from WWI and WWII,we have just under 19,000 in Canada.Coast to coast in all provinces and territories.”


In the Grassy Lake Cemetery, two veterans


are buried — Private Samuel Palmer (died Feb. 16,1921 at 48) and Private Scott Charles (died Jan. 11, 1920). In the Taber Cemetery,one veteran — Gunner Evan Victor Evans (died March 11, 1940, at age 20). While not much is known about these local


veterans buried, Loveridge explained that wasn't necessarily out of the ordinary.


6 - insight magazine june 2020


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