William Grayson School held their annual Remembrance Day service to honour and respect the fallen soldiers on Nov. 9.
“It is an important time of year to reflect and to take time to remember those sacrifices and honour the men and women that died,” Janice Colven, Vice-Principal of William Grayson School said. “It was nice to be able to come together as a group and a community to reflect and remember today.”
The service started with an introductory speech from Vice-Principal Colven, followed by a singing of “O Canada.” A couple of documentary short films were then shown to honour the memorials of fallen soldiers from the Second Word War to the Afghan War. After that, Adkin was invited on stage to share his valuable insightful thoughts and memories with the students at William Grayson school.
“I guess Remembrance Day is a very important, very special day for people like myself,” Phil Adkins member of the Friends of the Forces Fellowship said. “I think of Remembrance Day in particular of those that fought in very difficult circumstances and survived.”
Adkins was born and raised in Moose Jaw. He attended Alexandra School and Central Collegiate and is a retired water source engineer. His father was in the Second World War and survived.
Adkins gave a presentation about “The Dambusters.” He specifically named two Canadian Airmen who were among 30 who were from Moose Jaw, totalling 133 airmen who took part in the operation. They were pilot Ken Brown and Navigator Robert Urquhart. Urquhart was killed in action and Brown survived until he died in White Rock B.C. The mission was top secret and later known as the “Masters Raid” of 1943. The mission took place in the middle of the night to blow off three dams in the Ruhr Valley River. “They came up with a plan, a very ambitious plan, very technical. It was a very tricky plan to destroy these dams, and thereby impact the German war machine production.”
During the operation, there were 19 Lancaster bombers and the 133 airmen. Out of it, eight aircraft were shot down, 53 aircrews were killed, and three aircrews were taken prisoner.
Ken Brown was awarded the Conspicuous Gallantry Medal (CGM) several awards specifically for this mission and later won several awards for his time and service in the RCA.
During the presentation, there was a moment of silence and then memorial flowers were presented by the students. Then students recited “The Flanders Fields” in memory of the fallen. At the end of the service, everyone sang “God Save the King.”
“We will remember them,” Colven said.
Adkin commented that William Grayson School did an excellent Remembrance Day service. “The kids were very engaged and accomplished their objective in increasing Remembrance Day and remembering the fallen veterans.”
