For Elora’s Susan Hamilton Shepherd, Remembrance Day is a time to be thankful for the sacrifices of those who fought overseas in various conflicts.
“It’s just a time to remember and reflect,” she said.
It’s also a time to pay tribute to her own family’s role in the First and Second World Wars.
Each year, as Nov. 11 approaches, she takes out the familiar box containing her relatives’ wartime photos, letters and other mementos, and reflects on the past.
“I think of my (late) parents,” Susan said.
“This time of year they kind of always kept things upbeat, but you could tell there was more to it … there was kind of a sadness there.”
Susan’s parents, Elsie Hamilton (nee Saunders) and Wilfred Hamilton, took part in the Second World War, as did three of her mother’s siblings.
Her grandfather Richard “Harry” Hamilton (Wilfred’s father) fought for Canada in the First World War and her great grandfather (Elsie’s grandfather) Bernie Saunders fought in the Boer War.
“I think we’re warriors,” Susan says of her family’s military history, before adding with a smile, “not by choice.”
Her mother’s family was from Beckenham, in the London borough of Bromley, England.
Elsie, a radar plotter with the Royal Air Force, and her siblings Charlie Saunders (Royal Engineer in the British Army), Fred Saunders (air force) and Daisy Saunders (army), were all part of the English forces in the Second World War.
“That’s what happened in England – everybody had to step up to the plate,” Susan said.
She is uncertain of the exact circumstances, but at some point during the conflict in Europe, Elsie met Wildfred Hamilton, who was fighting with the Canadian army.
A Fergus native, Wilfred enrolled on Oct. 14, 1940 and fought in France, Germany, Italy and Holland. He was discharged on Sept. 17, 1945.
While Susan’s parents were falling in love, her uncle Charlie was fighting in the Pacific theatre in Asia. He was eventually captured by Japanese forces.
After the fall of Singapore in February of 1942, Charlie was one of many prisoners of war (POW) sent to work on the Thailand-Burma railway, nicknamed the “railway of death,” which helped supply Japanese forces in Burma.
“I just can’t fathom it,” Susan said of the conditions her uncle endured. “We don’t understand it … we have so much in [Canada], it’s hard to realize what they went through.”
Letters from her uncle Charlie to her mother Elsie changed in tone over the years, from upbeat to disheartened.
“Don’t worry Elsie, we shall all be home again soon … I’m still at sea. I don’t know how long for … I shall be glad to get to where we are going … there’s not much to write about,” Charles wrote on Nov. 28, 1941, just nine days before the official start of the Pacific War.
On Sept. 13, 1945, roughly a month following Japan’s surrender, and after several years as a POW, Charlie wrote of his first plane ride and expressed regret that he missed the wedding of Elsie and Wilfred.
“Dear, it is great to be free again after a long time of hell and slavery. I am alright in a hospital camp. Don’t worry,” Charlie wrote, adding his captors “have been beasts to us.”
Charlie would return to England a few months later, where he started a family.
Meanwhile, Wilfred Hamilton returned to Canada shortly after war, followed by his new bride Elsie, and the couple settled in Fergus. For years they were both members of the Fergus Legion.
While her parents are gone, as is her uncle Charlie, Susan said her family in Elora keeps in regular contact with relatives in England.
She is thankful all her family members returned home from the war, but she is also mindful of countless other families – both in Canada and abroad – that were not so lucky. Susan said she often thinks about the young soldiers who left for war and never again returned home to their loved ones.
Quiet reflection will occupy a portion of her time the week leading up to Remembrance Day, but Susan also planned to take part in public services, including the Nov. 5 ceremony at the county museum in Aboyne to commemorate the war dead from Wellington County.
“People gave their lives … so others could have freedom,” said Susan. “We can’t forget that.”
