Dear Editor:
On Monday, August 5, 1935 at 3:30am a field cannon (military artillery) was fired off in downtown Fergus. It was loaded with a blank so it made a big noise, but no one was hurt. It was fired every 15 minutes from 3:30am to 7:30am – 17 times in all. By then no one in Fergus was asleep. Promptly at 7:30am a military band started west along St. Andrew Street followed by a marching military unit. At Tower Street, they turned south, crossed the bridge, and marched with the band playing to the newly erected Cenotaph (remembrance marker) for those who had lost their lives in the Great War (World War I).
The 17 cannon firings marked the 17 years between the end of the War in 1918 and the cenotaph being built in 1935 – Arthur had a cenotaph, Elora had a cenotaph, even Belwood had a cenotaph but Fergus did not. After trying to convince town council to build one, Dr. Norman Craig took it upon himself to raise the money to have a cenotaph erected.
At 7:30am on August 5, 1935, the dedication of the memorial was carried live on the radio. August 5 was carefully chosen – it was not the anniversary of the start of the war which began in June 1914 – however the first battle of the war was fought on Aug. 5, 1914. Aug. 5 was the anniversary of when soldiers started dying.
In June 1933, the play You’re Lucky if You’re Killed a play (a musical, in fact), written, directed, and produced by Dr. Craig, with himself as a lead character, had been performed once in the Grand Theatre, Fergus. This was to raise funds towards building the cenotaph. The play, one of the first if not the first Canadian play about the war, gave the audience a look into the challenges soldiers had returning to civilian life and the impact of what we would now call PTSD.
With this background as we mark the 90th anniversary of the Fergus cenotaph we are reminded that war is tragic. Not only are the fallen to be remembered, but those who return home also deserve care and compassion for many have returned from Canada’s wars profoundly hurt in body and soul by what they have experienced.
Peter Bush,
Fergus