HANNA ERECTS MEMORIAL TO DEAD DOLDIERS

Whole community takes Part in Impressive Ceremony Thursday

 

Sixty-Six Names on Roll of Honor

 

Tablet is Unveiled in New Memorial Hall by colonel Gibson

 

By Herald Staff Reporter

 

Hanna, July 2, 1926 – Witnessed by a large representative audience of citizens of Hanna and farmers of the surrounding district the Memorial hall recently completed in this town was officially opened on Dominion Day. This fine building probably the best in the province for a town the size of Hanna, is a tribute by the residents of the town and district to the men who gave up their lives for the cause during the Great War.

 

            The ceremony was brief, but very impressive and it brought back to the minds of many memories of fine days when the young manhood of the district started the long journey eastward in 1914, 1915, and 1916, to join other Canadians and stand side by side with troops of the British isles and other colonies in defense of the Empire.

 

Some idea of the extent of this districts contribution at that time is gained from a glance at the honor roll on which no less than 66 names are inscribed

 

Roll of Honor

 

The following is the list.

J.C. Anderson

P.M. Boilse

C.T.Bruce

A.J. Bennet

P. Blecher

J.P. Backman

E.R. Bishop

D.E. Roles

S.W. Boon

B.C. Brown

W. Burns

J.J. Corbett

W.H. Clemens

G. Daubnes

D.B. Donald

D. Duglas

W. Elliott

H.J. Embree

A. Falconer

W.L. Fullard

C.W.T. Fleming

W. Fry

J.W. Gardiner

W.R. Hunter

R. Herold

S.A. Hern

G.S.B. Jones

G.L. Jones

J. Keay

W.O.B. Kery

J.C. King

J. Klyoshk

T.S. Leonian

C.V. Loveland

H. Loveland

S. Maley

J. Moser

J. Murtha

F. McCullough

P. McCarvie

W. McEvenna

M. Noodle

G. Purvis

O. H. Peete

I. Powel

J.A. Riddell

L.G. Rope

R.W. Rydeberg

T.H. Stockwell

H.A. Slengerland

D.E. Smith

L.R. Smith

W. Smith

E.M. Strachan

L.T. Strachan

A.T. Thompson

S.S. Thompson

C. Townsley

H.D. Townsley

S. Tindall

J. Tindall

J. Tyson

J.H. Wallace

J. Williamson

J.J. Wiscarson and

C.H. Wood

 

Gibson Unveils Tablet

 

Col. W.W.P.. Gibson, C.M.G. D.S.O., O.B.E. district officer commanding M.D. No. 13, unveiled the tablet on which these names were inscribed. G.K. Haverstock, school inspector of this district was the chairman of the memorial service and he delivered the principal address.

 

Dr. W.H. Wads, mayor of Hanna, who is also president of the Canadian Legion in Albert, was the other speaker.

 

Rev. Capt. Muncatet OF Calgary pronounced the invocation and the dedicatory prayers. Lieut. Col. D.W.B. Spry, O.B.E., A.A. and Q.M.G. in the unveiling ceremony.

 

Immediately following the service a parade headed by Judge Stewart of this district, who is president of the branch of the legion here, took place to the sports grounds.

 

All citizens as well as Boy Scouts, and returned veterans joined in the parade and on reaching the sports grounds the veterans and Scouts were inspected by the officers of the military district.

 

In the afternoon there was a baseball tournament in which four teams Hanna, Chinook, Nacmine and Castoe took part. This was followed by a football game and the boxing program in the evening in which Basil Daines and Rogers, two leading welterweights of the province, clashed. The day’s celebration was brought to a close with a dance in the new memorial hall.

 

The day was Ideal for the big celebration and farmers from many miles around were in attendance. It was estimated that more than 1,000 automobiles were parked around the baseball diamond while the teams played off for the championship of the tournament and the premier prize.

 

We are here to dedicate a memorial to men who did have deeds said Mr. Haverstock, in his address at the dedication ceremony. “Such deeds are the greatest heritage of man can leave to the future.” In this connection, the speaker quoted Abraham Lincoln in his famous Gettysburg speech.

 

“We cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate. The brave men living and dead have consecrated it far above our power and to add or detract.”The world will little note nor long remember what we say here but it never can forget what they did.”

 

Mr. Haverstock told how the Spartans and the Athenians had fought for their personal liberty. They had been for generations the symbols of heroic patriotism. But I think that future generations he added with out forgetting the Spartans or the Athenians will quote the Canadians as proof that the old standards of heroism and patriotism may have not altogether been forgotten in the modern world.

 

He went on to say that much credit was due those who had carried the burden of seeing the building completed. Incidentally the Memorial hall was started some six years ago when the boys of the district first returned form overseas, but at the time only enough finances were secured to compete the basement. It is now a two-story building with at the requirements of a community center, and it is in the minds of those who have worked so hard during the last few years to see the building completed that it should be used for that purpose.

 

Mr. Haverstock struck this note in his address when he said that many different types of memorials had been erected in honor of those who served during the Great War, all expressing sincere appreciation and remembrance for service. But I am convinced” he declared. “That we have in this type of memorial, a building to be used to serve the community as a whole, a true interpretation of the spirit and guiding impatiens of the men in whose honor this building has been erected.

 

In unveiling the tablet, Col. Gibson said that of it were inscribed the names of former residents of the district, friends and relatives of many at the ceremony who had gone out to the great adventure and had never come back. If they had a voice at this time he was sure that they would be well pleased with the memorial that had been erected.

 

Mayor Wade, in a few brief remarks, expressed appreciation to all those who had assisted in making the building possible. He paid special thanks to the Ladies Auxiliary, who had supplied the piano. The hall he said had been erected for the service of the people of this district and he hoped that it would be used to that fullest extent.

 

The Hanna band was in attendance at the ceremony and at the sports grounds in the afternoon. Mr. Bruce Wallen sang a solo dedicating, and the Hanna male quartet also sang. Mrs. A. Benson and Mrs. J.D.R. Stewart were the accompanists.