Local author contributing to Citizen Sailor Virtual Cenotaph Project

An inscription on the Cenotaph in front of the Sault Ste. Marie Courthouse reads:

“From little towns, in a far land, we came,

To save our honour and a world aflame;

By little towns, in a far land, we sleep,

And trust those things we won.”

According to an article written by staff at the Sault Ste. Marie Public Library archives, those powerful words were written specifically for the Sault memorial by the Nobel Prize-winning author Rudyard Kipling, at the request of then-Sault Star editor J. W. Curran in 1924.

The Cenotaph was designed to honour the casualties of the First World War.

Located in front of the Courthouse on Queen Street, the memorial recognizes more than 350 names of local soldiers who lost their lives in the First World War.

The names of sailors, soldiers and airmen deceased in World War II and the Korean War were added later.

Much of the histories of these local soldiers have been lost to the mists of time.

A new virtual project called the Citizen Sailor Virtual Cenotaph Project has been launched as part of a celebration of the Canadian Naval Reserves 100th anniversary in 2023 which is setting out to tell the stories of sacrifice of the 1769 Canadian Naval Reservists who perished in the Second World War.

10 of those 1769 reservists are also recognized on the downtown memorial.

Local physician and author Dr. Graham Elder has volunteered to help put together the stories of some of those local Naval Reservists who lost their lives fighting to protect our freedoms.

Once upon a time, Dr. Elder himself was a Naval Reservist.

“I joined with my cousin, Captain (Navy) Kim Kubeck,” he says.

“We both began our Naval careers at HMCS Donnacona in Montreal in the 80s as Ordinary Seamen while attending university. I ‘retired’ midway through medical school at McGill. Kim remained in the Naval Reserves and went on to command two Naval Reserve Divisions before retiring a few years ago after 32 years of service.”

Elder notes that it was Kubeck who approached him about participating in the Citizen Sailor Virtual Cenotaph project.

“In her retirement, she has taken on this outstanding project," says Elder. 

"Given my Naval Reserve background and current hobby writing novels, she thought it would be a good match for me.”

Elder notes that Kubeck had helped him out by beta reading several of his recently published fiction novels, as well as some still in the works.

“She provided very thoughtful advice and it was my pleasure to return the favour.”

Elder notes that the goal of researching the lives of the Reservists is to ‘repatriate’ their stories back to the Naval Reserve Division where each of these sailors enlisted, so current and future Naval Reserve sailors can keep their memory alive.

Two of the sailors Elder researched and wrote about, Ken Evans and Robert Lang, enlisted at the Ottawa Division (now known at HMCS Carleton).

Given the location of Sault Ste. Marie, local sailors enlisted at a variety of Naval Reserve Divisions including HMCS Griffon in Thunder Bay, HMCS York in Toronto and even HMCS Stadacona in Halifax.

For Elder, whose most recently published novels are works of fiction, writing for the virtual memorial has been an entirely different approach.

“It’s a bit of investigative journalism,” he notes.

“I’ve been reaching out to a lot of people and organizations in town to bring these stories together. I thought it would be interesting celebrating one of our important local monuments, the young people who fought for our freedom, and to capture just how involved the Sault was in the War,” says Elder.

The project has also provided Elder with some “remarkable” information about our city’s role in World War II.

“I’m still amazed by the use of barrage balloons to defend the locks,” he says.

“Several of which were apparently parked in my backyard almost 80 years ago, anchored off of giant concrete blocks buried just under the grass,” he says, noting that they are magnets for lawnmower blades.

Writing life stories about those from the past has been a challenge that Elder was excited to take on.

“It has definitely been challenging writing about young lads who died more than 75 years ago,” he says.

“Other than school and a bit of work, they really hadn’t lived or done very much up until that point when they joined the Royal Canadian Naval Volunteer Reserves to fight overseas.”

Elder, who wasn’t able to find any surviving family members of the sailors, was able to find information from military records, newspapers, ancestry resources, through social media requests, and information stored at the local library.

In the stories he has written so far, there is another source that has been invaluable.

“The local Legion pointed me towards Padre Phil Miller, who was a personal acquaintance of Mavis Evans (sister of sailor Ken Evans) and Eileen Lang (sister of sailor Robert Lang) before they passed away,” says Elder.

“He was able to provide some almost first-hand information about each sailor.”

Elder notes that Miller has been working on a project of his own, piecing together information about every name on the downtown Cenotaph.

“He has been methodically trying to piece together all those stories,” acknowledges Elder.

“In the spirit of investigative journalism, he would be considered one of my sources. Essentially, he provided me with everything he knew about the two sailors and I worked his information into the stories.”

Miller was also able to provide some photos to go along with Elder’s stories. 

“Good photos are surprisingly hard to find.”

One trick Elder has learned about putting these stories together is to follow the story of the ships these sailors were on.

“It gives you a sense of what they would have experienced, the waters and lands they visited, the missions they were a part of, the things they saw. From there you can piece together some of the life they experienced before it was so brutally taken from them,” he says.

As a physician, Elder is no stranger to research, having been involved in scientific research for decades and publishing a variety of medical studies.

“This project gave me a chance to use those research skills in a very different arena,” he says.

“It combined several of my interests; the Naval Reserves, history, writing and research.”

With his past as a Naval Reservist, the project has a personal connection to Elder

“I spent ten years in the Naval Reserves,” he says.

“Even now I can remember the klaxon sounding ‘Action Stations’ and running up ladders to the bridge in the dead of night to assume my station. My heart pounding like the repeated explosions of the three-inch guns mounted on the forward deck of the destroyer. It was loud, exciting, scary; everything a 21-year kid wants out of life. Until it’s reality … So it wasn’t hard to put myself in their shoes.”

Elder notes that his own son joined the Naval Reserves at the same age as sailor Ken Evans, the subject of the first story he wrote.

“Ken died at age 23 when his ship the HMCS Alberni was torpedoed and sunk in the English Channel in August 1944," he says. 

"My son being in the Naval Reserves makes the plight of these young sailors sent off to war all the more poignant. How would I feel if my son was sent off to war in a foreign country? I’m still not really sure.”

Elder feels it is important to document the lives of those who lost their lives defending our freedom.

“It is a noble thing to defend your country and your countrymen and to fight for what you believe is right, and to give your life for it,” he says.

“That should be remembered. I don’t think it’s enough just to have your name on a plaque or a cenotaph. The gift of a sailor’s life deserves that at least some details of that life, however short it may have been, be known and recorded. I think it’s the least we can do.”

The Citizen Sailors Virtual Cenotaph Project contains 10 sailors from Sault Ste. Marie, including those with the last names Davieaux, Gaetano, Pasquantonio, Patterson, Ryan, Tanner, Thomas and Wheeler. Those wishing to contribute information about these sailors can join the project Facebook group, Citizens Sailors Cenotaph. 

The stories written by Elder and other writers across the country will eventually be housed on a dedicated Citizen Sailors Virtual Cenotaph project website. Until that site is launched, they will be available on the University Naval Training Division Association website.

The CSVC Project is looking for researchers for the additional 8 local sailors who died in WWII, as well as approximately 20 sailors from other Northern Ontario communities like including Sudbury, Timmins, Kirkland Lake, Cochrane, Kapuskasing, Smooth Rock Falls, Sturgeon Falls, Englehart, and Porcupine. Slightly further afield, the Thunder Bay area was home to another 45 fallen sailors.

Those interested in finding out more about the project or volunteering as a researcher, click here or email [email protected].