"Absence, Part lll

Continuing from last Sunday,

Here we see a portion of the HMCS Malahat division that  was getting ready to join  up with other units for the formal Remembrance Ceremony at Sydney BC.

After that service my friend and I proceeded to visit the grave-site of Major General George Pearkes, VC.

General Pearkes was one of the most highly decorated soldiers in Canada. While the list is too long to mention here, we see his post-nominal initials above, starting with the most senior on the left... the Victoria Cross. Then comes the PC denoting his service on Canada's Privy Council, the  Commander of the Order of Canada, the Most Honorable Order of the Bath, the Distinguished Service Order, the Military Cross, the Canadian Forces (CD) long service medal and then the CF's Decoration Medal.

About 30 Km's north of the BC capital city of Victoria is the town of Sidney. The town hall is located, as shown above, at 2440 Sidney Avenue. This is where the remembrance ceremonies are held each year for that community. To the left of the map, at the water's edge where the red dot is, there is a small church called Holly Trinity Anglican Church and cemetery. This is where General Pearkes and his wife lay at rest.The area is known as North Saanich. 

There is limited parking in the area outside the church. You  will note the cute little signs in the area giving you directions on how to park.

Many a year ago George and his wife were married in this small community church, and it is here that they joined together  again, after death.

This image was taken of the original burial marker, the day after the Remembrance Ceremonies of November 11th. There was only one poppy on it on the 11th to which I added a second on that historic day. My friend added a 3rd. This suggested that only 2 others visited the famous general's grave to pay their respects and leaving a poppy on the marker by the 12th. Who knows if any others visited the site over these two days.

I find it absolutely disgraceful that this site is being abandoned on the very day set aside each year to honor our brave Canadian service men and women. Even more so to those with the above noted bravery awards and other post nominals.

Thousands gathered at Sidney yet there is no evidence  even a dozen gathered at this honorable hero's graveside on the very day that each should have.

If you are a reader from the Victoria area. I would ask you to visit this site at this time next year, and perhaps even sooner. The above shows the updated memorial marker for this hero and was unveiled in August of 2014.

Above are the two Victoria area Victoria Cross burial markers.

Up until 1918 the naval Victoria Crosses were awarded with a blue ribbon. Then the Royal Air Force was created. Rather than have a 3rd color introduced, the King decided all ribbons shall be of one colour, the red... or sometimes called crimson colour.

While the Bourke marker originally came with the blue, the commander was soon ordered to have it exchanged with the red. Thus the red is shown in the above image with the rest of the Bourke medals.

After the Bourke and  Pearke's events above mentioned I returned home and en route had to drive southbound on Shelbourne Street.

The street of forgotten dreams, noted in many past blogs in this space. Trees were to be planted in honour of the service members lost during the first war and both Boer Wars.  Past blogs will give you the details. (Use the search engine at upper right)

But on this date I noted for the first time the  first of two gateway signs to be installed, this one at the top, or north end, and the  2nd at the other end of the street of memorial trees. Here is that wonderful sign...

As noted in past blogs, three different generals visited this site on 3 different dates in the earliest days of the planting of memorial trees. The monument records their names and dates of visiting. Note a few poppies and some handmade poppies and a stone  similarly adorned. These are, I believe made by children from a near-bye school. More will be researched and shared with you in the future.

Here are more of the workings of the youth placed on one of the trees. Note the line of trees on both sides of the road traveling along its route.

This note, inside the wreath was perhaps made by one of the children's teachers.

My final stop for the day was to pay my respects at the Afghanistan Memorial downtown.

Here are a few of the images I took of the memorial. Note the number of poppies versus those at the Pearkes  grave site.

The above image displays the name of what has often been  claimed to be the first Canadian women killed in the face of the enemy. Tragic that it was... and is... but however many more women have been killed on battle fronts in the past. Nurses for one, in WW1. And more going back to the US Civil War and even earlier than that.

But that's enough for today!

On a closing note, Sunday past marks the beginning of my 9th year in this space with over 550 blogs published to date.

Your comments would be appreciated.

I should be back at the blog on Sunday December 19th,

cheers till then,

Bart