For more than a quarter century, the Barrhead Royal Canadian Legion Branch 75 has been honouring the deceased members of Canada’s Armed forces by placing a memorial on the gravesites of those who have served in Canada’s Armed Forces.
Herman Barkemeyer, Barrhead Legion member and Korean War veteran, said the idea of placing flags, or some sort of token of gratitude to veterans started in 1989.
“About four days after the Remembrance Day services, we (Legion volunteers) would pick up all the wreaths people had placed at the War Memorial and store them at the Field of Honour,” he said, adding when they had enough wreaths they would put them on the graves of veterans.
The Anglican Church donated the cemetery in 1925 for the sole purpose of honouring Barrhead’s veterans.
However, it did not take long for the volunteers to realize that while they wanted to do something, wreaths were not the right solution.
“By the time spring rolled around the wreaths would look just horrible so we decided to switch to flags instead,” Barkemeyer said. “They look much better, especially on a cold winter day, seeing a flag flapping away.”
Chuck Mortimer, who organizes the volunteers, said it is a large undertaking.
“Every year we place more than 200 flags at veteran’s gravesites,” he said, adding while the majority of them are at the Field of Honour, the Legion places the flags at graves of any deceased serviceperson who rests in any County of Barrhead cemetery.
In addition to the flags, the Legion also puts a wreath on the front gate or memorial at each cemetery.
Out of the 40 or so cemeteries in the county, Mortimer estimates that about 20 are home to veterans.
Although, he said, at first it was a challenge to make sure every veteran’s grave had a flag, he believes the Legion now knows where the majority of service people rest.
Because there is no definitive list of which gravesites belong to service members, it did take some time to come up with a proper list. For the most part Legion volunteers determine which gravesite belongs to service people by inspecting their tombstones.
“But not everybody’s stone has something identifying them as a member of the armed forces,” Mortimer said, adding that is where family members come in. “I hope we know where most of them are and on occasion family members still come forward and I add them to the list.”
About 10 volunteers start placing the flags in late September or early October. To aid in finding the graves, Mortimer provides volunteers with maps.
Barkemeyer also hopes the tradition will continue in perpetuity, but worries that after the current group of Legion volunteers are no longer able to continue the tradition may end.
“For some reason the younger veterans don’t seem to want to join the Legion,” he said, adding that is why it is important for regular residents to join the organization, noting people no longer have to be in the military or related to service members.
Barkemeyer added the Legion is also hoping to include NATO and United Nations veterans to the area’s war memorials. Currently Barrhead’s War Memorial lists the names of people who served in the area from both World Wars and the Korean War. “But that costs a pile of money and a lot of research to find all the names of veterans who served with NATO and United Forces,” he said. “My twin brother (John) spent 37 years in the Canadian Armed Forces (including being stationed in Cyprus as part of the United Nations contingent) and he’s entitled to have his name up there too.”
