Log in & Sign up
Most Commented
Bestowing an honour
Ceremony marks Pointe Claire's National Field of Honour's designation as a historic site
ALYCIA AMBROZIAK
The Gazette
Thursday, June 25, 2009
More than 1,500 people attended a ceremony June 21 commemorating the Last Post Fund’s 100th anniversary and the official ceremony marking the National Field of Honour in Pointe Claire as a national historic site.
Small Canadian flags were placed amongst the more than 20,000 graves of veterans and their families who rest at the Last Post Fund National Field of Honour and a commemorative plaque marking the designation by the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada was unveiled by Senator Pierre Claude Nolin.
The Last Post Fund, a non-profit organization dedicated to ensuring that no veteran is denied a dignified funeral and burial due to lack of funds, administers the cemetery which was opened in 1930.
The origin of the Last Post Fund begins with Arthur Hair who, after serving in the Canadian army, was working as head orderly at the Montreal General Hospital when, in December 1908, he came across an impoverished veteran who was dying. Hair raised money from fellow workers and friends to give the man a proper burial.
Worried that many veterans could face the same fate, Hair enlisted public support and, in April 1909, the Last Post Imperial Navy and Military Contingency Fund, as it first was known, was established.
“Over the past 100 years, the Last Post Fund has never deviated from the principles of dignity, compassion and respect that presided over its birth,” according to the Fund’s website.
"In co-operation with Veterans Affairs Canada, it ensures that no veteran be deprived, for want of funds, of funeral and burial services that befit those who have served their country, in wartime or in peace.”
Julie Dompierre, spokeswoman for the HSMBC, the body which advises the minister of Canadian Heritage on national historic significance, noted that the National Field of Honour was actually designated as a national historic site in 2007 but it takes time to get such things as a plaque.
She noted that through the designation, “the HSMBC is essentially recognizing the national historic value of the site in Canada’s history.”