Cross-continent vigil revives stories of fallen soldiers

Over seven nights starting Tuesday, 68,000 Canadians killed in the First World War were to "walk across the country" in a special vigil that ends Remembrance Day.

Created by actor R.H. Thompson and artist Martin Conboy to mark the 90th anniversary of the end of the war, the vigil involves projecting the names of the soldiers at locations across Canada and one site in England.

For the creators, the memorial, titled Vigil 1914-1918, is intended to bring the soldiers and their stories back to life.

Thompson said it was important for them to have the names "walk across" their home country so all Canadians could see "the men and women returning from the First World War."

But he says they also decided to have the names appear at Canada House in London's Trafalgar Square because most soldiers died on European soil and many of them likely walked through the square.

Names get front-and-centre treatment

The vigils began at 5 p.m. local time on Tuesday —  in London, England, and six Canadian cities.

Nearly 10,000 names were to be projected each night before the memorial culminates at dawn on Nov. 11. Each name was to appear once for several seconds.

"It's somewhat overwhelming but at the same time it feels like you're bringing them back to life somehow," Conboy told CBC's Ontario Today on the phone from England.

On Tuesday night, Kathleen LeValliant spent hours in front of the National War Memorial in Ottawa watching for the names of her three great uncles, 2nd Lt. George Hayward Taylor, Pte. Richard Hayward Taylor and Lance Cpl. Eugene Fred Taylor.

"It's just a cascade of names," she said as she watched dozens of other names go by.

George was 24 when he died on July 1, 1916, at a battle in Beaumont-Hamel, France, that killed 90 per cent of the soldiers of the Royal Newfoundland Regiment that he fought with, LeValliant said. His brothers, who were 21 and 19 at the time, died together at Monchy-de-Preux, France, on April 17, 1917.

"So the Taylor name, with our family, died out at that point," she said.

The boys' five sisters all lost fiancés in the war and only LeValliant's grandmother, Bessie Mariah, went on to marry and have a family.

'It's so easy to forget'

LeValliant, whose family always talked about the men they lost, said she was "so glad" to see the names up there.

"Because it's so easy to forget," she added, pointing to the empty chairs in front of the memorial around her. Only a handful of other people were there.

Canadians with a relative or family friend who died during the war can pinpoint the minute the name will be shown by searching the vigil's website.

The vigils were to be held:

• In Halifax, at St. Paul's Anglican Church.
• In Fredericton, in Alumni Hall at the University of New Brunswick.
• In Ottawa, at the National War Memorial.
• In Toronto, in Nathan Phillips Square.
• In Regina, at the Saskatchewan legislature.
• In Edmonton, at the Alberta legislature.

For those who can't visit one of the locations, the website will also have a live broadcast of the vigils.

The creators said they were inspired to attempt the large-scale project after the emotional reaction they encountered at a similar vigil to commemorate the 90th anniversary of the Battle of Vimy Ridge last year.

In that one-day event, the names of more than 3,500 Canadians killed in the battle were projected on the face of the National War Memorial.

"There's something about the war that haunts people," Thompson said. "It's a war from ancient history for most people."

As research for the Vimy project, Thompson said he spoke with about 500 soldiers' family members and often found himself on the phone with men in their 90s crying as they recalled memories about their fathers.

He says he struggled to understand how it could still be so emotional for them, but later realized that the war doesn't just affect the soldiers in battle, but carries on when the survivors return.

"There's a moment the bullets stop flying but then the war continues with a kind of social turbulence for decades," said Thompson.

Children of soldiers also experience war: actor

Children of the soldiers, now in their 80s or 90s, experience the war through how their father treats them, the nightmares they hear him having and the physical disabilities they witness, he said.

The last name — George L. Price — will be shown at dawn on Nov. 11, ahead of Remembrance Day ceremonies. Price, of Moose Jaw, had been conscripted just four months before Nov. 11, 1918, and died two minutes before the Armistice.

Conboy said Veterans Affairs provided $300,000 toward the project, which involved designing a computer program to project the names for each location.

Every major city in Canada was approached to participate, but each province or city had to arrange financing to get the project going. In some places, including London, England, and Toronto, private donations are helping finance the production.