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Under bright skies, a small handful of volunteers gathered Saturday to honour Canadian veteran Pte. Paul Otto Wiedman — gone but not forgotten — with a brand new marker, engraved with his name and rank and ” RCOC, 1925-1983, Lest We Forget.”
A gap in a long line of veterans’ grave markers in the Field of Honour at Edmonton’s Beechmount Cemetery had previously been the only sign of Pte. Wiedman’s grave site.
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There’s still work to be done: some180 veterans’ graves around Alberta and the Northwest Territories are missing proper signs that a veteran rests at the spot.
Last Post Fund volunteer Alison Glass was recognized for her work combing cemeteries around Alberta and beyond, taking photos of grave and uploading the information to Find A Grave for posterity.
She’s been documenting graves since 2007.
“To date, I’ve entered 167,000 entries into Find a Grave,” Glass said.
“I just can’t resist stopping by,” she said, citing the peace, quiet and tranquillity of the Field of Honour.
“I’ve been to every cemetery within an hour and a half drive.”
Glass recalled one case in the Edmonton area.
“Somebody from the Last Post Fund contacted me about Elzier Benoit in St. Albert — did I know where he was buried?” she recalled.
Glass was able to trace the grave location, which launched the successful campaign to have a proper marker — complete with a Métis symbol — placed for the veteran.
Among the many volunteers of the Last Post Fund’s Unmarked Grave Program, Warrant Officer (retired) Glenn Miller, president of the Alberta and Northwest Territories Branch of the Fund, led a short dedication ceremony.
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“We can honour these veterans if they’ve been interred more than five years — and of all places, here in the Field of Honour, laying beside their brothers and sisters, in unmarked graves, is almost criminal — walking by a gap in the Field of Honour and not being able to pay respects,” Miller said.
The Last Post Fund’s mission is to make sure no veteran is denied a dignified funeral burial marker for lack of financial means.
“Canadians can help honour their military legacy by making a donation at the individual, organization or corporate level to help us mark these heroes who need not remain forgotten,” Miller said.
The research is done at the national office to determine eligibility.
Edmonton veteran Maj. Charles Tsang, ret., was an MP deployed in Germany, Bosnia, Sudan and Ethiopia and Somalia.
“It’s important that veterans should be accorded their recognition, and many have not been — especially the Indigenous veterans,” he said.
“We want to give the recognition that they’ve served their country.”
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