‘We must never forget’: Fredericton honours Remembrance Day

Jill Miles has brought a wreath to her grandfather’s grave every year since she was a little girl. 

Albert Boddingham, who was buried in France but has a gravestone in Fredericton, fought in the First World War and died in the Battle of Vimy Ridge in April 1917. 

Miles, who attended Fredericton’s Remembrance Day ceremony on Tuesday, said her grandfather’s sacrifice helped stop evil. 

“You have to remember,” she said in an interview. “Those people died so we could be free.”

Miles never knew her grandfather — he died before she was born — but her mother’s stories made him real to her. Kids today, she pointed out, might not have the same avenues of remembrance. Ceremonies not only take ideas and cement them in reality, she said, but they can also help young people today imagine what life was like for the soldiers who fought for them. 

“I remember reading The Diary of Anne Frank and being devastated at what that poor kid had to live through,” she said. “We have to teach future children what that means.”

Jayden Devereau, a student at the New Brunswick Community College, was also at Tuesday’s ceremony to lay a wreath, and experienced first-hand Miles’s point when he heard the cannons sound.

“It puts you in a position to understand,” he told CBC News following the ceremony.

Raymond Ings, whose father fought in the Second World War and helped liberate the Netherlands, said he’s always advocated for the remembrance of Canada’s efforts in the wars. 

“We must never forget,” he said.

Having spent several years living in the U.K., Ings said he attended ceremonies specifically honouring Canadian soldiers.

“Canada’s always had an immensely proud history militarily, it always punches above its weight, and I always felt it was part of my mission, when I was in the U.K. particularly, to remind everybody there about the immense contributions that Canadians made,” he told CBC.

Eight-year-old Khrishna Kiruthika Prabhakar joined his fellow Cub scouts to march in the Remembrance Day parade. It was his second year doing so, and he told CBC he’s been learning about Canada’s history in the world wars.

“The soldiers died to keep this country safe,” he said.