Sask. soldiers honoured 100 years after Great War

Monday marks 100 years since the start of the First World War. 

Monday afternoon, people honoured the thousands of soldiers who sacrificed their lives in a special ceremony at the Saskatchewan Legislative grounds in Regina.

During the ceremony, new plaques with the names of fallen Saskatchewan soldiers were unveiled at the War Memorial there.

The memorial was first erected in 1995 to commemorate those who lost their lives in the Great War. It originally had about 5000 names on it. 

More names discovered

Chairman of the Saskatchewan War Memorial Committee Terry Lyons says while working on an online virtual memorial site, researchers uncovered more names of soldiers who had not been recognized on the memorial.

"In the days when we were first doing it, it was all done by books—copying them down. A lot of them were typed by my secretary in her spare time. So we thought we had everybody — we got just over 5000—so we built it cause it needed to be built," said Lyons.

Since then, more than a thousand names have been discovered and added to the memorial. Now there are approximately 6400 names on the monument.

"We had a committee meeting about two years ago and we decided we just couldn't leave it sit with 20 per cent of our men and women missing off the memorial. So, we made a plea to the government and we put up half and they put up half," said Lyons.

The Saskatchewan War Memorial Committee was able to pay for its portion through donations it received.

Lyons says he is pleased they were able to complete the project to be revealed on the 100th anniversary of the Great War.

If more names of Saskatchewan soldiers who died in the First World War are discovered, more plaques could be added to the memorial.