Description
Mr. Ganong describes a pilgrimage to France and being overwhelmed by the number of graves. He offers high praise to the War Graves Commission and expresses appreciation for a luncheon hosted by the Minister of Veterans Affairs.
Whitfield Ganong
Whitfield Ganong was born August 1, 1895 at Snider Mountain, New Brunswick. A second cousin to the Ganong chocolatiers of nearby Saint Stephen, he and his family lived on a mixed farm. Mr. Ganong enlisted in the 64th New Brunswick Battalion, having been accepted despite a bad leg and transferred to the 104th Battalion. He then joined the 26th Battalion as a Private and Lance-Corporal, and saw action in three major battles: Vimy, Hill 70 and Passchendaele. Mr. Ganong later worked as a teacher, shopkeeper and accountant, and married Katherine Ellen Herbert in 1924. He took part in a pilgrimage to France, and was shocked by the number of graves, yet awed by the work of the War Graves Commission. Mr. Ganong died on January 5th, 1989.
Transcript
When we were over to France this time, we drove all the way from the Somme right up to Belgium and there’s thousands and thousands of cemeteries, some of them maybe with a thousand graves in them. And you look at these words and they say, name so and so, 18, 19. We had a fellow from Newfoundland on our trip, Mr. Mullet. He was with us on this tour and he was with the Newfoundland Regiment there. And they went in one day, they had 801 members and the next day there was only 68 answered the roll call. And they have a, they have a great big park there, too. It’s a great big rock and on top of that rock stands a caribou, Beaumont-Hamel. You just think, the prime of life, thousands and thousands all over along the front. We had a Mr. John White with us on the trip. He was, he’d been in the War Graves Commission for years. And you know, the War Graves Commission deserves special commendation because their cemeteries were all in great shape. He was retiring now, he’d been doing his . . . he was getting near sixty-five so he was going to retire, but he was with us for the three days. We had a nice luncheon. You know, they always have their Remembrance Day service at the Vimy Memorial the Sunday before Remembrance Day, every year. And after that, the Minister gave us a luncheon and boy, was that a swell affair. It was in that hotel there and the tables were round tables. It was about ten at each table. And that was the nicest afternoon, you didn’t think, you were among friends. And on one side of me was a Major Peterson, who was in charge of the Canadian Forces in Germany and what a fine fellow he was. You know, he talked the whole time and on the other side was a French colonel, of course. He was, he couldn’t talk. Then I got a thrill. One of these girls, you know, were at the table. She sent over a menu, she wanted it and when I come back she had written on it, “I will be in Vancouver sometime and I’ll be phoning you.”