A privilege 'worth fighting for': Letter reveals how family's military legacy began
A letter from 1916 is helping Robert Manzer understand how patriotism led his grandfather to enlist
A 104-year-old letter is helping Robert Manzer shed light on his grandfather and namesake who started a family tradition of military service that has lasted three generations.
Manzer, 63, lives in Halifax, but his family history in the military started at the opposite end of the country in Nanaimo, B.C.
His father, Robert Banting Carson Manzer, was born in B.C., and served with the merchant marine from 1937 to 1953, and with the Royal Canadian Navy from 1953 to 1965, reaching the rank of lieutenant. He died in 2001.
Robert Manzer was always aware of his father's storied military service, but knew very little about his grandfather's enlistment during the First World War until he inherited the century-old letter.
"My grandfather passed away in 1961. I was four years old," said Manzer, a retired commander who spent 35 years in the Canadian Armed Forces and the navy before retiring in 2017.
"It's only by reading letters like this one that he wrote to his mother — my great-grandmother — on the 3rd of June, 1916, that I can sort of get to understand a little bit about his motivations and what kind of man he was."
In the letter, Manzer's grandfather says he plans to enlist to support the war effort. At the time, the world was in the grip of war and Canadian troops had suffered heavy losses in the previous two years.
"We expect to live in this country in the future and I'm sure that privilege is worth fighting for," wrote Robert Howard Manzer, who was just shy of 30 years old and working as a school principal in Nanaimo.
He was determined to enlist out of a sense of duty and patriotism.
"He was somebody that really cared that when the country needed more soldiers, that somebody in his family had to go for it and he had decided it was him," said the younger Manzer.
Despite suffering from numerous medical conditions, including varicose veins, flat feet and muscular rheumatism, his grandfather managed to pass his physical.
He enlisted with the British Columbia company of the 196th Western Universities Overseas Battalion.
Many young men at the time joined the war effort with thoughts of adventure and excitement in mind.
Manzer's grandfather was under no such illusion.
"I have passed the age in life when such an enterprise has any fascinations for me. In fact the thought of the drudgery, discipline and routine of the soldiers' camp life fills me with loathing," he wrote.
"I anticipate nothing pleasant in the whole undertaking so I am not bargaining for disappointments."
He served overseas as a clerk with the Canadian Forestry Corps until he was found medically unfit for service and discharged on Nov. 1, 1918, just a few days short of the signing of the armistice on Nov. 11 that ended the war.
The poignancy of his grandfather leaving behind a fairly comfortable life to face the uncertainty of war isn't lost on Manzer.
"Sometimes you have to put your country in front of your own personal safety and your own personal comfort and rise to the occasion. And I think that's what my grandfather and my father both did," he said.
As Canada observes an unusual Remembrance Day under pandemic restrictions, Manzer said he hopes people take a moment to think of those who lost their lives in the service of their country.
"We still need to take time to think about those who came before us that made those kind of sacrifices so that we can continue to enjoy life in Canada that we do enjoy."
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