A story behind the cenotaph

On May 22, 1921, Harry N. Rich pulled a large Union Jack flag off a granite cenotaph in Ladner’s Memorial Park.

When he unveiled the cenotaph, Rich quoted Cecil Rhodes and said, “I have planted an acorn and will not live to see the tree, but others will and they will rejoice in it.”

Rev. Jim Short wants to ensure the meaning behind Ladner’s cenotaph and its significance to local families is not forgotten.

“I don’t think people really understand that for the First World War generation, that cenotaph was really a graveyard,” says Short. “And when they unveiled the cenotaph, this was the funeral service they never had.”

During the First World War, families were often notified of the death of a loved one by telegram or newspaper listing. Bodies were not sent home, but instead buried in Europe. Many soldiers’ bodies were never found, such as Harry Rich’s son, Private Sydney Norris Rich.

“After the war, communities across Canada, realizing their sons and daughters would never come home again, banded together. There was a huge flurry of activity across Canada after the war,” says Short. These families formed patriotic committees and raised money—without funding from the government—to erect cenotaphs in memory of their loved ones.

Harry Rich was a driving force behind the fundraising for Ladner’s cenotaph, on which his son’s name is inscribed. Recently, Short visited the Delta Museum and Archives to learn more about the stories behind the names on Ladner’s cenotaph, in particular the story of Private Sydney Norris Rich.

“We go to the cenotaph every year and we just see names, but behind every name there’s a story—and every story is filled with grief,” says Short, minister at Ladner United Church, and who served as a chaplain for seven months in Afghanistan last year.

Rich was the only son of Harry and Lydia Rich, a pioneer family of Ladner. He was an early volunteer during the First World War, offering his skills as a motorcycle dispatch rider. And since he was a qualified land surveyor, Rich was also assigned to be a range finder for machine guns, a dangerous job, explains Short, where he would have been positioned beyond the front line to send information by field telephone back to help gunners adjust their range on targets.

Yet Rich wrote a letter home to his parents in April 1916 telling them, “This is more like one big picnic than war, and the aeroplane shooting is fine.”

“My guess is that he wrote that to attempt to reassure his family and friends he was okay,” says Short. “Trench warfare in World War One was anything but a picnic especially by 1916 when the Canadian Corps had been terribly bloodied by the war.”

Two months later, on June 3, an exploding shell killed Rich during the Battle of Mount Sorrel at Ypres Salient in Belgium. His body was never found, and his name is inscribed on Panel 32 of the Menin Gate Memorial in Ypres.

The following day Rich’s sister Edith’s fiance, Sgt. Edward Bell, also from Ladner, was wounded in the same battle. Short says it is unknown when the Rich family found out their son was killed and potential son-in-law wounded within a day of each other. However, Edith received rare and special permission to travel to England to be reunited with her fiance as he recovered.

Short added that both Edith and Edward, who passed away in 1981 and 1976 respectively, went on to become well known and involved members of the Ladner community. Edward eventually took over Harry Rich’s law business after his father-in-law died.

Short, who saw 19 young men returned home in boxes during his time in Afghanistan, reflected how differently families are notified of a loved one’s death today—within 12 hours in person by a chaplain and a senior officer, followed by the appointment of another officer to support the family through the return of the body to Canada.

After the First World War, Short says many families didn’t even receive their loved one’s personal possessions and waited years until memorials and cenotaphs were established.

Short says cenotaphs are in fact mourning sites, a graveyard without bodies.

The Ladner community raised enough money to buy four acres from the estate of William Ladner to build the cenotaph and park, and more names were added after the Second World War and Korean War. The municipality took responsibility for the cenotaph in 1956.

Says Short, “The Ladner Cenotaph was the only memorial, the only place where you could go and mystically touch the name of the one you loved and lost.”

—Information contributed by Rev. Jim Short and the Delta Museum and Archives

Reverently remembering

The Corporation of Delta and Royal Canadian Legion Branch 61 (www.rcl61.com) ask residents to observe Remembrance Day with them in Ladner on Nov. 11.

A parade will start at 10:30 a.m. at the Ladner Legion (4896 Delta Street) followed by a ceremony at the Ladner Memorial Park cenotaph at 10:45 a.m. (47th Avenue and Garry Street).

The event will be followed with a luncheon at the Ladner Legion (4896 Delta St.) for people ages 19 and older.

In North Delta, a ceremony will be held at North Delta Social Heart Plaza (11415 84 Avenue) at 10:30 a.m., hosted by the Kennedy House Seniors Society.

For more details contact Parks, Recreation and Culture at 604-952-3000 or email park-rec@corp.delta.bc.ca.

The Corporation of Delta and Royal Canadian Legion Branch 61 (www.rcl61.com) ask residents to observe Remembrance Day with them in Ladner on Nov. 11.

A parade will start at 10:30 a.m. at the Ladner Legion (4896 Delta Street) followed by a ceremony at the Ladner Memorial Park cenotaph at 10:45 a.m. (47th Avenue and Garry Street).

The event will be followed with a luncheon at the Ladner Legion (4896 Delta St.) for people ages 19 and older.

In North Delta, a ceremony will be held at North Delta Social Heart Plaza (11415 84 Avenue) at 10:30 a.m., hosted by the Kennedy House Seniors Society.

For more details contact Parks, Recreation and Culture at 604-952-3000 or email park-rec@corp.delta.bc.ca.

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