For the third consecutive 12 months, the Royal Canadian Legion of Brockville, Ont. is honouring troopers who had been from the area forward of Remembrance Day.
Tons of of banners studying “We honour those who served” with footage of males who served within the First World Conflict and the Second World Conflict, Korea, Afghanistan, and extra are held on lamp posts lining King Avenue in downtown Brockville.
The Legion noticed this system being applied in different rural communities in jap Ontario and thought it will be an effective way to honour troopers from the Brockville space too.
The banners are bought by households who had a relative that served within the army that they need to honour forward of Remembrance Day, and annually the challenge has grown in scale.
“As quickly because the banners went up, we did get a really optimistic response from the group,” mentioned Paul Hodgert, the co-chair of the Brockville Legion.
In 2022, there have been 45 banners in whole. Final 12 months, that quantity rose to 183. This 12 months, it is as much as 221.
“We’re what we are able to do for 2025 and we’re watching our house very, very fastidiously,” Hodgert informed Ontario Chronicle with fun.
Brockville resident Jim Grimes honoured his father, Jim Grimes Sr., with a banner for the primary time this 12 months. He served within the Royal Canadian Navy throughout the Second World Conflict.
“We had been actually fairly taken with it,” Grimes mentioned when describing the sensation of seeing his father’s banner.
Grimes added that he is used to honouring his father on November 11, however having the chance to do it within the weeks main as much as Remembrance Day has been a pleasant change.
“Households are at all times stopping, studying names, transferring on to the subsequent, studying names, and earlier than you already know it, you are studying names of lots of people you already know,” he concluded.
Hodgert added that Brockville has a wealthy historical past with the army, relationship again additional than The First World Conflict.
Within the struggle of 1812, army commander Sir Isaac Brock led the defence of Higher Canada, which is why the town is called Brockville to today.
“Since then, the army historical past on this metropolis and space has been fairly important,” Hodgert mentioned.
“One of many banners that was up this 12 months, and a number of other from final 12 months, dated again to males from Brockville who served within the Boer Conflict in 1899.”
