“Lest We Forget” – November 11, 1945

Today is the first peace-time Armstice Day after another world war. The Second World War, too, saw the peoples of the Empire arise as one man to defend what we hold true and dear. In those dark days that will be known in history as the Battle for Britain when everything we had did not seem enough, public opinion was united again; petty differences were put aside to meet a common danger, a threat to a common ideal. This war, too, saw a fighting Empire in the middle of the war, become weary and fatigued, its unity beginning to disintegrate, but nevertheless determined to see the thing thru. And now again Victory is ours; the same tendency to make heroes of everyone in uniform, everyone who helped toward victory, is evident. We stand now where we stood twenty-seven years ago.

No one remembered that poor man! His words were not heard! Will history repeat itself once more? Will our nation forget the sacrifices of Dieppe, of Casino and the Falaise Gap as they forgot those of Vimy Ridge and Hill 70? Last time we erected war memorials to help us remember. They stand everywhere – in market-places, in front of libraries and public buildings, in churchyards, in cemeteries. ‘To the Glory of God’ they usually begin, ‘and to the undying memory of’ – then a score or more of names, each of which, foreign or British but all Canadian, meant something, perhaps everything to somebody. That is a fine custom, to put our gratitude in granite or steel. But we know a better way – put your gratitude into action, live it.

At this Armstice Day service we remember the Dead, but we speak to the living. To us who are living comes the challenge of Flanders’ Fields: ‘To you, from failing hands, we throw the torch! Be yours, to hold it high1″ Our gallant Dead who rest in little bits of Canada thruout [sic] the world made the Supreme Sacrifice because they believed in certain ideals. Surely a cause worth their dying for is worth our living for. That is the greatest memorial a nation can make to their heroic Dead – hold their principles, cherish them, live them.

Excerpt from “Lest We Forget,” Remembrance Day Service by Chaplain H.-Capt. E.G. Pearce, Delivered at Camp 132 (Medicine Hat) on November 11, 1945. Library and Archives Canada.