BARRHEAD – It is a Barrhead fall tradition.
Every October for the last dozen years or so, volunteers from Barrhead's Royal Canadian Legion adorn the grave sites of Canadian Armed Forces (CAF), merchant navy and RCMP veterans and their spouses with Canadian flags at the Field of Honour at close to 20 cemeteries in the County of Barrhead.
Herman Barkemeyer, a 10-year CAF veteran with both the Royal Canadian Air Force and Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry (PPCLI), including a rotation during the Korean War, said that prior to laying flags, the Legion honoured deceased veteran's graves in the Field of Honour by using the memorial wreaths placed at the cenotaph.
"Wilf Seal (a CAF veteran), who was in charge of the Field of Honour, was a person who liked to save everything, and he would put the wreaths into storage," he said. "But we thought a better use for them would be to honour our veterans."
Unfortunately, there was a problem using the wreaths. First, they did not have enough of them for every veteran, plus they did not hold up well over the winter.
So the Legion started to look at alternatives to using the wreaths.
"At the time, a lot of Legions or community groups were using poppies on sticks, including the community I was in at the time," Legion president Chuck Mortimer said, adding these are the same volunteers who also place the flags at all the other cemeteries in the County of Barrhead.
Mortimer is also a veteran, having served in the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) reserves. He is an Anglican minister who also served as the Legion chaplain in several communities for 35 years.
"And although I liked the idea, I did not think they were very visible, but miniature Canadian flags would be," he said. "You can see that when you drive by here. We get comments from people who pass by the cemetery, telling us how great it looks."
Mortimer noted there are more than 200 flags in the Field of Honour.
"It usually takes us (a volunteer crew that includes himself, Barkemeyer, his wife Inga, Legion members John Tiemstra and John Schroder and Rob Waggoner and former Town of Barrhead councillor Shelley Oswald) about two hours to put up," he said, adding the same volunteer crew that places the flags at all the other County of Barrhead cemeteries.
And while Mortimer said they take great care in keeping track and mapping where all the veteran graves are at all the cemeteries, he admits some have passed through the cracks. Barkemeyer and Mortimer noted there is no government body giving them information on where veterans may be buried, so they rely on information they get through the tombstones or by word of mouth.
"Every year, we find a few more," Mortimer said.
"And if we have any doubt, we place a flag," Barkemeyer added.
He also noted that unlike the large Alberta and Canadian flags that they receive from the MLA and MP offices at no charge, the Legion has to buy the smaller versions themselves.
"It is the least we can do for our service people," he said, adding he believes the Legion or some other community group will continue the tradition in some form forever.
Field of Honour history
The Anglican Church donated the cemetery in 1925 for the sole purpose of honouring Barrhead's veterans.
Barkemeyer said while the church may have donated the land, much of the other features, such as the fencing and the trees, are the direct result of the returning Second World War veterans donating supplies and their sweat equity.
