Loyalist College marks Remembrance Day

Maj. Allan Ferriss (left), commanding officer of the Air Communication and Control Squadron at Canadian Forces Base Trenton, along with Loyalist president Maureen Piercy, past honorary colonel of the squadron, and master warrant officer Michael Chapman, took part in the Remembrance Day ceremony in Loyalist’s Alumni Hal Wednesday. Photo by Corey Jacobs, QNet News

By Corey Jacobs

BELLEVILLE – Loyalist College celebrated Remembrance Day with pride and honour.

Wednesday’s ceremony started with a slide show by the Canadian Armed Forces, featuring images of veterans and news events, including headlines about the amount of people on the Highway of Heroes bridge in Trenton honouring Cpl. Nathan Cirillo’s tragic death.

Maj. Allan Ferriss and master warrant officer Michael Chapman of the Air Communication and Control Squadron at Canadian Forces Base Trenton attended the ceremony as honorary guests, but they were not the only members of the military at the Alumni Hall ceremony. Loyalist College president Maureen Piercy also introduced Kevin Rowcliffe, a major who is retired after 28 years of service, Robert Goodman, a sergeant retired after 14 years in the Canadian Airborne Regiment, and Kevin McCue, retired after 22 years in the Royal Canadian Navy.

The crowd at the Remembrance Day ceremony in Alumni Hall. Photo by Corey Jacobs, QNet News

“Canada remembers because there are still conflicts,” Piercy said in her opening statement. “Heroic men and women go to war for the benefit of Canada and the rest of the world and for freedom, and some are lost. But until the last war is fought – lest we forget.”

O Canada was sung by Lorrie Taylor, a Loyalist graduate:

The Last Post and Rouse were played on the trombone by Andy Sparling, a retired Loyalist College professor. He says he first played the traditional Remembrance Day music on the trombone at Loyalist’s ceremony five years ago because a trumpet player was hard to find, and he’s played every year since.

Andy Sparling playing the Last Post and Rouse. Photo by Corey Jacobs, QNet News

Sparling played the songs beautifully; you could feel the emotion during the two minutes of silence.

Next came the reciting of In Flanders Fields.

Emily Edwardson, the applied sciences, skills and technology leader in Loyalist’s student government, read the traditional poem:

Ferriss was next, speaking about battles past, present and yet to come.

“Vimy Ridge, the Battle of Britain, the Battle of the Atlantic, Hong Kong, Dieppe, Sicily, Juno Beach, the Falaise Gap, the liberation of Hong Kong, the liberation of Holland, Kapyong; these are just some of the battles long ago that are entrenched in Canada’s collective memory bank,” Ferriss said.

“Remember them we shall; remember them we must.”

Ferriss also talked about what gives him the strength to serve Canada:

Maj. Allan Ferriss says "Canadian Forces is very diverse in what we can do and provide for the CAN gov't." #Qnetnews pic.twitter.com/t8LdRrBT79

— Corey Dennis Jacobs (@CJacobsQNetNews) November 11, 2015

Belleville radio journalist and author Mary Thomas spoke about a First World War soldier from Sharbot Lake who is being honoured this year in a Remembrance Day project by Family and Children’s Services of Frontenac, Lennox and Addington.

“I know it’s difficult to remember thousands of people, but sometimes you can just keep one person in mind,” Thomas said.

Thomas shared a story about one experience she had travelling to Velika Kladuša, Bosnia with Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry, a peacekeeping unit: “You can only walk on the pavement. You couldn’t walk on any area of ground because of the land mines.”