Tag: remembrance

Again ‘Semper Paratus’ August 19, 1942

The seagull flying high above, sail coasting on the wind, had seen it all before……

Last Wednesday (August 19, 2026) I attended the ‘Dieppe Remembrance’ ceremony at the Dieppe Veterans’ Memorial Park on Beach Blvd in Hamilton, Ontario situated along the Waterfront Beach Trail that snakes along the shores of Lake Ontario.

Long ago, on that August day 1942, now past 84 years, over 6,000 infantry troops (mostly Canadians) under the banner of ‘Operation Jubilee’ stormed the North Sea beaches at Dieppe, France (just north of the city of Rouen).A surprise attack. Over 3,600 were wounded and killed (913) or taken prisoner, 60% were Canadians. (it was the bloodiest day of the war for Canada) From the Royal Hamilton Light Infantry (RHLI) 197 young soldiers gave up their lives that day. 582 RHLI soldiers came, only 211 returned back. It was to be a raid, testing the German readiness and probing their defence system. Families lost loved ones, there was sadness and crying in Canada. It was the second World War of the 20th Century.

The raid was not successful and failed in many ways even though those in charge said they had gained invaluable information that would eventually lead to that other attempt on June 4, 1944 which was the beginning of the end of the turmoil in Europe.

Today was remembrance. The honors were for that brave attempt and those who died and suffered now years ago not to be forgotten. I felt I needed to be there.

The band played a preppy tune and marched to the dedicated area where invited people in uniform and civics had already taken a seat. The person in charge introduced the setting which had been made possible by a Hamilton City councillor in 2007 who first suggested this event must be remembered here. This spot was chosen because it resembled that beach setting of 1942 far away in France.

While the band played that old National Anthem ‘the Maple Leaf Forever’, (learned that song when my family first came to Canada 1953 – Grade 6) the flag colour party marched to the front and took their place under the Canadian, British, American, French and Ontario flags. The Chaplain spoke about the meaning of the Royal Hamilton Light Infantry motto Semper Pradatus ‘Always Prepared’.

The last post was sounded and the band struck up the hymns ‘Abide with me’ and ‘O God our help in Ages past’. God save the King and O Canada was also played. The wreaths were laid by various groups and organizations.

The Chaplain concluded the event with a ‘prayer’ but all he did was remind us of the value of giving your all for your neighbour.

Then band marched off and the ceremony was over.

This is an important event equally so as is November 11th Remembrance Day.

I was struck by the fact that the word ‘God’ did not cross the lips of the Chaplain and that the Christian message which many who were casualties so long ago would have known and believed was not considered or spoken of. Did their faith not matter?Does the slogan ‘for God and Country’ still ring true?

Only the band’s hymns spoke about God’s compassion, care and His command to do justice for all with peace and comfort the dying and bereaved. There were also another couple of other ‘God’ witnesses in the Royal anthem of ‘God save the King’ and ‘O Canada – God keep our land’. The last ‘God witness’ was the mounted plague explaining why this spot and the reason for it displaying the names of the fallen:

TO THE GLORY OF GOD AND IN PROUD MEMORY OF THE 197 OFFICERS, N.C.O.s AND MEN OF THE ROYAL HAMILTON LIGHT INFANTRY (W.R.) WHO DIED ON THE ESPLANADE, ON THE BEACH AND IN THE TOWN OF DIEPPE 19 AUGUST 1942 . List of 197 names follow.

I felt a deep thank you for those who had braved this attempt to free me just back then a 1 year old, my family and many other families from the evil domineering grip of Fascism and Nazism, war, murder, persecutions, holocaust, concentration camps and cultural lies and domination. Unfortunately, for some there would be two more and for some almost three more years of starvation and terror, before they would taste freedom again. I am forever grateful and recent events have certain heightened my sense that there is a thin separation between friendship, co-operation and putdowns and those Darwinian pokes and strong armed tactics and other threats we see again happening around the world.

Where are we now? Where will we be? Will we be OK?

The dark clouds of war and destruction after 80 years of peace are appearing again on the horizon and the rhetoric of domination of peoples and nations are heard now again very close.

O God, may the hounds of war be chained. Someone once said: Let the proud be humble. (Letter from James Chapter 4 verse 6)

The ‘Larks’ still bravely singing fly………..

JS    August 20, 2026

Note: August 19, 2026 news item: ‘Members of the Canadian Armed Forces have been informed that they should not mention God during public spiritual reflections.’ Christianity Today. So different from the message posted in a New Testament handed to the troops in WW1.

Note: Hamilton is not the only place where Dieppe Raid is remembered e.g. Ottawa,. Windsor, Port Hope, New Brunswick and other places.

The Larks still bravely singing fly…….

Although it snowed the day before, we attended the Remembrance service yesterday near our house with friends, walked on the snowy sidewalk and joined others who gathered and watched as the usual 11 o’clock events took place; the presenting of the flags by the veterans from the local Legion and the sounding of the trumpet for the 2 minutes of silence.

A fair crowd of assorted neighbours had already gathered, a flag delegation of veterans; (colour party) there were even school children who would take part in the proceedings.

At precisely 11 o’clock, we heard the first call, the sounding of the “Last Post” by the trumpeter which signals the last duty of enlisted soldiers at the end of day. During this call the Canadian flag was lowered and a time of complete silence followed for the 2 minutes. A time for all those in attendance to reflect on the sacrifice of those who gave their lives for their country and for freedom.

I find it always hard to reflect, because none of my family served or were lost in a conflict event defending truth and peace in a time of war. That said however, I do remember the events surrounding our liberation from German occupation during World WarII in April 1945. Although I was only just shy of 4 years old, the events of that weekend are very vivid in my thoughts. The Canadian Army had advanced far enough into Northern part of the Netherlands to take on the Germans in the city of Groningen where I lived with my family. We were hiding in the neighbour’s cellar space under the stairs and during a lull in the fighting were allowed upstairs into the living room and crossing the hall we noticed a young soldier propped up on a chair. His posture indicated he had been wounded. My mother remarked on it later and said that he would probably die. This is often the tone of the reflections I recall. For a young boy this was just news but now that I am older this scene packs a lot of things that are repeated time and time again during a time of war.

How did he become involved with the army? Did he have his parents’ blessings in volunteering during a time of hostilities? Was he excited to join others to go overseas? Who were is buddies? What events had he witnessed already in the last few months? Did he write letters to his loved ones? What did he tell them? Will he make it through and be OK? How old was he? If he returned home did he talk about his tour of duty and the happenings he experienced? Questions we are now slowly hearing through writings in books and articles. For some of them recalling these memories are just too hard.

I also think about those who resisted the enemy and fought silently and under cover in their local communities, harassing the occupying enemy and protecting the ones that were fingered for expulsion or removal. Like the story my mother told me about the young ‘underground’ fighter (‘onderduiker’) who was to lodge at our house that night in 1944 but said that he felt safe enough to go to his parents’ home. When he arrived, they were waiting for him and it cost him his life.

What sorrows and despairs are, even today, experienced by those living with war and conflict. Since the two World Wars there have been many global international events, Korea, Egypt, Rwanda, Iraq and Afghanistan, Yugoslavia, Sudan, Ukraine, Middle East not to speak of local misdeeds and violence in our own Canadian communities. When will the clash among humans ever end?

Who cannot shed a tear during that emotional scene in the movie: “Saving Private Ryan” where a mother is washing dishes in her kitchen, sees a gray car coming up the drive  and when she fully realizes the (bad) news it brings, how when the Sergeant and the Pastor step from the car, she knows, yes, she knows and collapses on the porch of her home, for this was what she dreaded. The news will be bad. That captures what it is like for those who lose a loved one(s) in wartime.

Our National Silver Cross (first authorized on December 1, 1919) mother for this year’s event in Ottawa was Mrs. Nancy Payne from Lansdowne, ON, who lost her son Corporal Randy Payne (age 33) in Afghanistan in April 2006. She too received that phone call in the middle of the night. A ringing phone in the night usually frightens us all and the one we all hope to never have to answer.

Soon as the two minutes are up, the bugler’s “Rouse”, the wake-up call, sounds and we are caught back to the reality of the day and our presence at the event.

We then sing the Royal anthem: ‘God save our Gracious King’ and instead of one stanza we also sing the 2nd which I did not know by heart but sounds like this: ‘Thy choicest gifts in store, On him be pleased to pour; Long may he reign. May he defend our laws, And ever give us cause, To sing with heart and voice, God save the King!’ A prayer really.

We will hear the now familiar words from the poem, “For the Fallen”, the 4th verse: ‘They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old: Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn. At the going down of the sun and in the morning, We will remember them’. (by Laurence Binyon, an English poet and first printed in ‘The Times’ on 21 September 1914.)

A prayer is then offered by a Chaplain of a local Christian church. For us that meant the priest of the local Catholic Church, Father Thomas, prayed for the military service personnel and their families with the earnest request of God to cease all wars and to invite God’s spirit to enter our hearts to seek for peaceful solutions to our never-ending issues. The prayer was concluded with ‘in Jesus name’ as, may this prayer be heard for our thanks and petitions to the King of Kings in the heavenly realms.

After comes the introduction of the local government and special community representatives and the laying of the wreaths by those representatives and local organizations including children from two local Christian Schools. This I found interesting that the schools are educating the children to remember and not forget the bravery of these sacrifices for our peace and freedom in our beautiful Canada. The true north, strong and free.

It also made me think that we immigrants from a foreign land, the Netherlands, are not always actively and visibly present at ceremonies like these although some of us older ones still have the memories of a land wasted and harassed by an enemy for five years were liberated by young Canadians who in the words of one we know now buried at Holten War Cemetery said: ‘I want to serve so that I can participate in the liberation of my grand-parents.’ May he and others rest in peace.

There had been a large crowd this year and partly I think because of the political situation in the world largely driven by the past year’s events and in the face of new concerns, for some in Canada, by our powerful neighbour to the South. This has brought us renewed caution and at times reactions of distrust and deep hurts of friendships gone wrong. There is a sense that past values and alliances are being undermined and discarded.

May we ever be on guard (call out, resist all tyranny) and be wise enough to know where our loyalties, our duty and sense of love for our neighbours must be placed.

Jesus words to one of his disciples on drawing his sword, as recorded in the Gospel of Matthew chapter 26 verse 52 still ring true today: “Put your sword back in its place, for all who draw the sword will die by the sword.” Tr NIV

JS November 12, 2025

PEACE be with You!

  • feature picture: Monument at Vimy Ridge, France – depicts the figure as “Canada Mourning Her Fallen Sons” or “Canada Bereft” dedicated July 26, 1936 – it took 11 years to built designed by: Walter Allward and Frederick Chapman Clemesha.
  • Title of this blog is taken from John McCrea’s poem ‘In Flanders Fields’ …that mark our place; and in the sky the larks, still bravely singing, fly scarce heard amid the guns below…..
  • The sword was drawn by a disciple to protect Jesus from those who came to capture him, in the garden of ‘Gethsemane’ the night before he was condemned and crucified.

Note: I know the circumstances and actions resulting from committed community crime is not to be compared with bravely going to war to defend the decency of moral and lawful peaceful people and nations but nevertheless the victims and families who suffer the loss of a loved ones because of these evil actions of those who practice their criminal life style in the midst of our citizens without regard of conscience is just as devastating. Just think of that recent event in downtown Hamilton (July 11, 2025 -Story by CBC/Radio-Canada) where an innocent by-stander was killed at a bus-stop, as a scooter rider fired discriminately into a group of targeted gang members. Or what about the recent killing of a father in a house invasion event (Nov12, 2025 – Vaughan, ON)