Nancy Payne was born in Peterborough, Ontario the eldest of three sisters. Her father worked for a company in the technology industry and her mother was a stay-at-home mom.  She attended St. Anne Elementary School and St. Peter Secondary School. 

Nancy worked in the fashion section of a department store, and then as a hairdresser. It was during that time that Nancy met her husband David, also from Peterborough. At the time, David was stationed in Germany with the Canadian Armed Forces and the two started communicating by mail. They married not long after meeting in person. A life of service led them to several locations in Ontario including London, Petawawa and Kingston, and took them overseas to Germany. 

The couple had two sons, Chris and Randy, who both served in the Canada Armed Forces. In later years, Nancy became a personal support worker at a care centre in Gananoque and went on to a leadership role as Activity Director, retiring after twenty years. 

Today, Nancy and her husband live in Lansdowne, Ontario. Nancy enjoys quilting, knitting and reading. She enjoys spending time with her friends and family, including four grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.

  For close to nineteen years, Nancy has presented a special athletic award in Randy’s memory to a deserving student at the high school he attended in Gananoque. The “Captain’s Award” is given to a student who shows leadership and athletic skill, and has good marks. Randy loved hockey and was a good player, becoming a local star and captain of the Gananoque Islanders. She also speaks about him on that occasion. “I just want people to know about him, and I don’t want people to forget him,” she says.

  As Canada’s National Silver Cross Mother, Nancy feels it is a great honour to represent all mothers and families who have lost a loved one in the line of duty. She wants to keep their spirit alive. “Never forget what they did for us. They gave their lives, we can’t forget that… we have what we have because of them.” 

Randy Payne

Corporal Randy Joseph Payne served with 1 Garrison Military Police Company, based in Wainwright, Alberta. Born on May 29, 1973 in Lahr Germany where his family was stationed at the time, he spent his teenaged years in Gananoque, Ontario.

Randy was killed in action in Afghanistan on April 22, 2006 while serving as a member of the “Close Protection” team assigned to that mission. He died alongside three other soldiers, when a roadside bomb struck the military G-Wagon they were driving while returning to Kandahar Airfield from an operating base. His mother Nancy clearly recalls the devastating moment when she happened to be at home by herself and learned of her son’s passing in the middle of the night.

“I couldn’t believe it,” she says. “I know when they join, you think it’s possible that something could happen but you never think it would happen to your own,” she shares.

As a young man, Randy wanted to be a policeman; and eventually joined the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) in 2003. Described by his mother as someone who was fit, smart and picked things up quickly, he loved his military policing work. “That was his forte, he excelled at everything,” she said. He first trained as a Military Police Officer in Alberta and is said by a good friend who served with him, to have swiftly mastered the role, performing his duties with “skill, enthusiasm and finesse.” He began his military life assigned to the Royal Canadian Air Force Military Police and was later assigned to the Canadian Army.

“He enjoyed the excitement and thrill of it… it’s what he wanted to do, his heart was really in it,” his mother says. She characterizes his work ethic and overall attitude as having been “fair, firm, and friendly.” She clearly remembers the day she happened to be visiting him at CFB Wainwright in Alberta, when he got the call that he was heading to Afghanistan. He was raring to go. She was not looking forward to it, but she kept that feeling to herself. He was so excited that she was happy for him.

Her son had applied and successfully became a member of the Close Protection team for Canada’s mission in Afghanistan in 2005, just two years after he had joined the CAF. The team’s role was to safeguard VIPs such as people in authority who arrived in Afghanistan – individuals like former Prime Minister Stephen Harper, and former Chief of the Defence Staff, General (Retired) Rick Hillier. Randy was deployed in 2006, and part of the very first Close Protection team to go. While there, he was assigned to Regional Command South Commander, Brigadier General (Retired) David Fraser - who regularly called the team his “posse,” as his parents recall.

Randy was the 15th of 158 Canadian soldiers to give their lives during Canada’s mission in Afghanistan. He continues to be honoured in several ways including the inscription of his name on the Canadian Police & Peace Officers Memorial in Ottawa; on a bridge in Gananoque, Ontario and on the town’s local cenotaph. His former high school displays a plaque and picture at its entrance, in his honour. “To think that the school remembers him…I think it’s wonderful that he’s remembered that way,” says his mother.

Randy and his wife Jody have two children. His son Tristan is now a combat engineer in the CAF, and his daughter Jasmine is a personal support worker. Randy is described as having doted on his family and is remembered by those who knew him as a good friend with “a broad smile and ready laugh.”

In 1936, Mrs. Charlotte Susan Wood from Winnipeg, Manitoba, became known as the first National Memorial (Silver) Cross Mother when she placed a wreath on the tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Westminster Abbey in London, England, on behalf of all Canadian mothers who have lost a child in military service to their country.

On August 24, 1914, her son, Private Frederick Francis Wood, was killed at Mons, Belgium while serving with the Duke of Cambridge's Own (Middlesex Regiment).

On May 5, 1917, a second son, Private Peter Percy Wood, was killed at Vimy Ridge while serving with the Canadian Infantry (Saskatchewan Regiment).

Mrs. Wood immigrated with part of her family from Britain to take up a 160 acre Dominion Land Grant northwest of Edmonton in September 8, 1911. Seven of Mrs. Wood’s sons/stepsons signed up to serve with either the Canadian or British army during the First World War, two did not return.

She was active with the Canadian Legion, Imperial Veterans of Canada, Comrades of the World, Association of War Widows and the Old Contemptibles Club in Winnipeg, Manitoba.

She was awarded the George V Jubilee Medal in 1935. While on a pilgrimage to attend the unveiling of the Vimy Ridge Memorial in July 1936, Mrs. Wood was presented to King Edward VIII. Seizing the opportunity she said to him, "I have just been looking at the trenches and I just can’t figure out why our boys had to go through that."

He replied, “Please God, Mrs. Wood. It shall never happen again.”

Canada’s famous war mother died three years later, just weeks after the start of another world war. She was buried in an unmarked grave in Winnipeg’s Brookside Cemetery. A new gravestone was erected over 60 years later.

Mrs. Catherine Lewis was the National Memorial (Silver) Cross Mother from 1937 to 1941. For these five years, she represented all mothers who lost a child in military service to Canada. During the national Remembrance Day ceremony each year, she laid a wreath at the base of the National War Memorial on their behalf.

On November 27, 1915, her son, Henry Bartle Lewis, was killed in Belgium while serving with the Canadian Infantry (Eastern Ontario Regiment).

On November 18, 1916, a second son, Private Charles Walter Lewis, was killed in France while serving with the Canadian Infantry (Eastern Ontario Regiment).

When the Secretary of State wrote Mrs. Lewis asking her to represent the mothers at the unveiling, she replied that she would rather not. Later the Prime Minister sent back word to her that he would have nobody else, so she could not refuse. Four of her sons served in the First World War. Jack was in the artillery and Stephen served with the mule transport in Montreal. They all went overseas in the first contingent.

Mrs. Lewis was born in Dublin, Ireland and came to Canada in 1853 when she was 18. She died at the age of 91.