A look back at ceremonies of years past

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 09/11/2020 (2110 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

With public Remembrance Day ceremonies off the table in Manitoba this year, it’ll be one for the history books.

It won’t be the first Remembrance Day of significant historic note, however, with a dig through The Brandon Sun’s archives revealing some interesting insights regarding Remembrance Days of the past, including the very first.

The newspaper of Nov. 11, 1919, looks back on the very first Armistice Day one year prior, when “Brandon folk were celebrating.”

“At 2:50 in the morning one year ago today, the following telephone message was received by The Sun: ‘The world war will end this morning at eleven o’clock Paris time. The armistice was signed by the German representatives at midnight.’”

The mayor immediately communicated with the fire department and railways, who all rang out their bells and whistles to wake people from their sleep.

People got out of bed and walked over to the newspaper offices to read their bulletin board to see the news for themselves and get a copy of an extra edition of the newspaper.

“Then began the real rejoicing,” the newspaper reported.

“Every minute the tremendous noise increased. The people cheered, laughed and shouted.”

Fireworks were set off, bands were out and all manner of musical instruments were being performed.

The crowd paraded from the newspaper to city hall, where the celebration continued.

A parade of people and vehicles began in the late morning and continued until late at night, “for Armistice Day was a holiday and everyone wanted to celebrate.”

In the evening, a torchlight procession took place alongside community singing and addresses by well-known men.

The following year’s newspaper highlighted the two-year anniversary of Armistice Day, declaring it will “Live long in many hearts.”

A banquet was held at St. George’s Church, where nearly 100 men toasted “The Fallen Heroes of the Great War.”

Throughout the nation, the newspaper reported that practically all activities ceased for two minutes in recognition of the second anniversary of the closing of the “Great War.”

Another notable day of remembrance took place on Nov. 11, 1945.

Now called Remembrance Day, the events now honoured the dead from two world wars, with the Second World War having recently come to a close.

Various churches held Remembrance Day services, though no details of the events were reported in the newspaper.

The following year’s Remembrance Day, however, was reported on, at which Mayor Frank Williamson offered a “stirring proclamation” that challenged those gathered to make the occasion about more than remembrance.

“It must also be a day of rededication to the cause of peace — the cause for which so many have given the last full measure of devotion. Just as the young men and women of this and previous generations have taken up the torch, so, too, must we be ready.”

On the Remembrance Day of 1991 — the year the Berlin Wall came down in a symbol of the Cold War’s end — Korean War veterans were recognized with their own medals for the first time.

During Brandon’s Remembrance Day ceremony, Korean War veteran Robert Johnson laid a wreath for the 28,000 Canadian soldiers to fight in Korea.

“It wasn’t a very nice country,” said Johnson, who was 20 years old when he went overseas to serve as a gunner in the war. “People were starving to death, it was pretty desolate.”

Although last year’s Remembrance Day wasn’t of any great historic note, it’s the last before the COVID-19 pandemic brought a presumably temporary end to large public gatherings.

The ceremony at the Keystone Centre honoured Canadian Forces members of all stripes, including those of some of the most recent missions in the Balkans and Afghanistan.

Canadian Forces Base Shilo commander Lt.-Col. Jeff Lyttle said he’d join others in thinking about the 158 service personnel and seven civilians lost in the war in Afghanistan and the 40 Americans who were serving under Canadian command at the time of their deaths.

“All Canadian military members know the price paid for our freedom and are passing the torch of remembrance to the people of Canada.”

» tclarke@brandonsun.com

» Twitter: @TylerClarkeMB