Carol Smith is the chair of the North Queens Remembrance Day Committee and chaplain with the North Queens Fire Association. (Rick Conrad)

When people in North Queens gather on Tuesday to commemorate the community’s war veterans, they’ll have a little help from a booklet and website honouring those who didn’t return.

The project is a collaboration between the North Queens Remembrance Day Committee, the North Queens Heritage Society and air force veteran Chris Charlton.

They’ve created a booklet called North Queens: We Will Remember Them. It profiles the 33 service members from the area who died in the two world wars and the Korean conflict.

“I think the importance is that these young men from North Queens were very committed to serving their country and to doing what was needed in their time,” says Carol Smith, chair of the Remembrance Day committee and chaplain of the North Queens Fire Association.

“And when you read the profiles, you just see what a huge change it must have been for them to leave rural Nova Scotia and go fight in faraway countries and just put their lives on the line. So it’s the enormity of their sacrifice that we need to remember. And I think that’s what Remembrance Day is all about, is realizing that we’re all called upon to want the greater good and to remember what they did for peace and what is it that we can do in our time and place. It’s just a great inspiration to me.”

Charlton, who was a Sea King pilot for 28 years and is a Gulf War veteran, approached the committee last year about a project he was working on to commemorate the war dead from North Queens.

The Maitland Bridge native wanted to profile each of the fallen veterans listed on the cenotaph in Caledonia.

“And we quickly got the committee together and started working with Chris,” Smith says. “Chris has done an amazing amount of work researching the lives of those whose names are on the cenotaph in North Queens, and he deserves a lot of credit for that because it’s been a labour of love for him.”

The committee received a $3,000 grant from Veterans Affairs Canada to print 250 booklets to distribute to families of the fallen. There will also be copies handed out at this year’s Remembrance Day service in Caledonia. Charlton will be at the ceremony.

The booklet includes a full profile and photos of each of the servicemen. There’s even more information on the North Queens Remembers website, including a treasure trove of archival documents.

“I think what makes them so very interesting is the details that Chris has put in, where each person was born, their family, where they enlisted, how they served, tragically where they died, where they’re buried, how their families were notified. It all brings to life their commitment and their sacrifice.”

Though Charlton wrote the profiles and compiled the documents, it was a community effort, including members of the former Royal Canadian Legion branch in Caledonia and the volunteer fire department.

“Part of it is to honour these people. And it would be easy to let the passage of time dim our memories. … A lot of the men were buried in foreign fields. And a lot of people have not been able to go and see the cemeteries. So this is just one way to connect us to the amazing stories for each of these people.”

The project was also a personal one for Smith. Her father Mervyn Dunn was a veteran of the Second World War. He returned home, but he didn’t talk much about his experiences overseas.

“He was in France, Italy, Holland, all those places, and he never talked about it. He never talked about it. Many veterans are like that, and I regret, I really regret, that I didn’t ask him more. … But, you know, so many people have the same story, that their fathers didn’t talk about it.”

At the Remembrance Day service in Caledonia on Tuesday, members of the committee will read the profile of Private Joseph Colp, whose brother Simeon is still alive and living in a nursing home in Lunenburg. They also plan to give one of the commemorative booklets to him.

“And I think this is a really good profile to read because it really highlights the sacrifice of so many. And Chris has mentioned in his profile that where he is buried, the cemetery contains the graves of those who died during the fighting at Moro River and Ortona. Today, there are 1,615 graves in the cemetery, of which 1,375 are Canadian.”

Smith says the committee has also given about 20 copies to the North Queens Community School, where teachers plan to use it in class projects. She hopes the document will inspire other groups to do similar research on veterans in their area.

“We used to have them around so that we could talk to them, but now we don’t. So I think these stories need to be told. And so if it could be an inspiration, that would be great.”

The Remembrance Day service in Caledonia is on Tuesday at 10:45 a.m. at the North Queens Fire Hall. 

Copies of the booklet are available for public viewing at the North Queens Heritage House Museum in Caledonia. You can visit the North Queens Remembers website at https://www.northqueensremembers.ca .

Email: rickconradqccr@gmail.com

Remembrance Day services around Queens County

A list of 2025 Remembrance Day services in Queens County.

Photo Ed Halverson

The Royal Canadian Legion’s annual poppy campaign is back with a decidedly new twist this year.

Donation boxes and volunteers will still be in the same familiar locations, but some will offer a new way to donate.

Electronic tap and pay boards which were rolled out on a trial basis in a few locations last year are now available at the two main grocery stores in Liverpool, Sobeys and Superstore.

The boards allow you to choose a dollar amount and quickly tap your debit or credit card to make your donation.

President of Mersey Branch 38 Louis Landry says the automatic machines not only make it easier for people to donate, they require fewer volunteers.

“The good thing about that is that then the person doesn’t have to man the table. We don’t have to have somebody watching the money box. It’s there on the grace of everybody. I tell everybody that poppies are free, we’re just asking for a donation,” said Landry.

The Legion is also going green this year, introducing biodegradable poppies and wreaths.

Landry says the Legion will be working its way through the stock of poppies and wreaths they have on hand.

He expects many biodegradable wreaths will be on display this season and to see the new, greener poppies next year.

Landry says the Poppy Campaign is crucial to supporting local veterans as every dollar donated goes to support former military and RCMP members living here in Queens.

Landry is also seeing an uptick in the number of volunteers offering to man their donation stations.

He credits people being more comfortable dealing with COVID in the community and the efforts of their Poppy Campaign Chair Janet Will.

“Because she spent quite a number of hours on the phone canvassing people, encouraging them to come out and actually volunteer for this year’s poppy fund,” said Landry.

The Legion will be marking two significant events during Remembrance Day ceremonies this year.

The first is the passing of Queen Elizabeth. The second is the 80^th anniversary of Canadian forces landing in Dieppe.

In August of 1942, 5,000 Canadians joined their allies in storming France, 900 of them didn’t make it home.

The Legion will host a series of events around Queens County on Remembrance Day beginning at 9:30am at the Brooklyn Baptist Church.

Several services will run concurrently at 10:45am at cenotaphs in Liverpool, Milton, Caledonia, Port Mouton and Greenfield.

Services will also be held at noon in Liverpool at the Camp Norway Memorial and at 2:30pm at the newly dedicated 1^st Beech Hill RCAF Memorial on Old Port Mouton Rd.

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Photo Ed Halverson

The Royal Canadian Legion’s annual poppy Campaign rebounded from the pandemic in an unexpected way.

Mersey Branch 38 President Louis Landry didn’t have a final total but says the community really stepped forward to help veterans and their families.

“We did rebound and we did make better than last year, not so much in the sales of poppies at the stores but more so in donations.”

Landry says those donations came primarily in the form of memorial messages which are read by legion members at the Remembrance Day services.

Traditionally the notices are read in person but this year they moved online.

Landry says the legion placed poppy boxes in 68 locations around Queens, 126 donations were received, and 76 wreaths were purchased.

All money raised for the poppy fund goes directly to help veterans and their families.

Landry says attendance at Remembrance Day ceremonies also saw a considerable increase over last year.

He says the Brooklyn service doubled their turnout and Port Mouton had 80 people come out, far more than the usual 20 who would normally attend the service.

Landry says while the sunny weather helped, he feels people are looking to connect with one another.

“I think that COVID may have strengthened that desire to show support,” said Landry. “I think that COVID, and life has caused things to be more meaningful.”

Landry says that desire was reflected in the higher turnout at all nine Remembrance Day services across the county.

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Photo Ed Halverson

The public can once again attend Remembrance Day ceremonies this year.

The events were limited to invited guests in 2020 due to restrictions around the COVID pandemic.

Chairman of the poppy fund for Royal Canadian Legion Branch 38 Louis Landry says ceremonies will go ahead this year but all events must take place outside.

“The Liverpool ceremony was always held within the theatre with a wreath-laying session out at the actual cenotaph after the ceremony,’ said Landry. “Because of COVID this year, we’ve decided not to have it indoors, we’ll have everything outdoors as we did last year.”

COVID protocols have been relaxed but Landry says anyone attending one of the nine services being held across Queens County will need to wear a mask and follow the six-foot social distancing rules.

Landry says the legion banquet that would traditionally follow the ceremony has also been canceled.

Instead, people are invited to stop by the legion following the ceremony to speak veterans and members.

Anyone wishing to enter the legion will need to show proof of vaccination before entering.

A complete list of Remembrance Day ceremonies and locations is available on the Legion Branch 38 Facebook page.

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Legion poppies. Photo credit: Ed Halverson

The Canadian Legion hopes eased pandemic restrictions means more money in their poppy fund this year.

Poppy Fund Chairman at Royal Canadian Legion Branch 38 in Liverpool Louis Landry says their fundraising efforts were hamstrung in 2020 when volunteers were not permitted to solicit donations in person.

“Last year we were kind of handcuffed because of COVID,” said Landry. “[We] couldn’t actually go out and raise any monies, other than to deposit the poppy boxes in local businesses.

He estimates about $10,000 was raised during that campaign, roughly half the amount they would normally take in.

Landry says that $10,000 went to good use over the past year as the legion bought a TV for Hillsview Acres, wheelchairs for the hospital and gave money to the food bank to provide meals for veterans and their families.

Landry is optimistic the return to in-person poppy donations will see an increase in giving.

In fact, he has already seen the difference.

“Myself and a friend were at the Superstore on the opening day, that was Wednesday, for three hours and we probably raked in close to $500.”

Landry is also hoping the easing of restrictions will also mean a greater turnout at cenotaph services this Remembrance Day.

The public is once again invited to attend services this year after they were closed to everyone but officials and participants in 2020.

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