Remembrance Day

Lest we forget
This weekend brought sombre reflection and gratitude as Shawnigan recognized and paid tribute to the 100th anniversary of armistice.

The community, including alumni, parents and friends of Shawnigan, gathered at a special chapel service on Saturday to pay tribute to the dedication and bravery of our veterans. The service was opened with an emotive reading of In Flanders Fields, a famous war poem written during the First World War by Canadian physician Lieutenant-Colonel John McCrae.

Other notable highlights of the service were a Roll of Honour for the 44 Shawnigan alumni and 1 member of staff who were lost in the Second World War and a powerful speech by guest speaker, Major Chloeann Summerfield.

“Anniversaries of major military events are a time to reflect on the debt we owe to veterans,” noted Major Summerfield. “Their service and sacrifice exemplify our country’s dedication to upholding peace, security, the rule of law, the sanctity of borders, human rights and other principles that underscore Canadian values. We enjoy freedom, prosperity and equality because of them. Although we are privileged to live in a country where freedom is a deeply held belief, with that privilege comes a responsibility. We have a responsibility to help men, women and children whose most basic rights are being abused and whose fulfilling future has all but vanished. The members of the Canadian Armed Forces and our veterans before us have taken this responsibility proudly, with professionalism and a generosity that is beyond compare. Fighting for an ideal justice and freedom embodies what it means to be Canadian and Remembrance Day is a day to reflect on that heritage and to pay tribute to these men and women.”

At the end of the service, the congregation filed out into the quad where students placed poppies on the 45 crosses set up to represent each fallen community member named in the Roll of Honour.

This reflection and recognition continued on Sunday, as the chapel opened once again to offer a service that ran concurrently with other Armistice Day ceremonies nationwide. The chapel bell was rung 100 times in recognition of the 100 years that have passed since the cessation of hostilities on the Western Front of the First World War. Shawnigan’s chapel bell is from HMS Broadwater, a British Destroyer sunk near Iceland in 1941 during a mission escorting an eastbound convoy.

As Headmaster Larry Lamont notes in his reflection on Remembrance Day, C.W. Lonsdale established Shawnigan during the First World War in 1916. The effects of war on Shawnigan were also to be deeply felt during the Second World War. In addition to the loss of alumni and staff sustained by the community, the school stepped forward and provided education during the war years for students evacuated from Britain.

“The Duxbury hymn—I Vow to Thee, My Country—captures love and loyalty both to homeland and to the kingdom of heaven,” shares Headmaster Lamont. “I rather like the last line: ‘And her ways are ways of gentleness and all her paths are peace.’ For me, Remembrance Day is both a time to honour those men and women who have fallen in conflicts and to remind ourselves that we must do our utmost to find those 'paths of peace.'”
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We acknowledge with respect the Coast Salish Peoples on whose traditional lands and waterways we live, learn and play. We are grateful for the opportunity to share in this beautiful region, and we aspire to healthy and respectful relationships with those who have lived on and cared for these lands for millennia.