Remembrance Day is Nov. 11. The date was chosen for a reason — it was the day in 1918 that “the war to end all wars” finally ended, after more than four years of ceaseless battle that claimed about 16 million lives and accomplished little other than set the stage for an even more damaging war, just over 20 years later.

When what was then known as Armistice Day was first observed in Canada in 1919, no one knew that another war was on the horizon. People in Langley and other parts of the country were simply glad that the war was over, and they did not want to forget the monumental sacrifice made by their sons, brothers and friends. In Langley, 370 young men eventually served in the armed forces — more than 10 per cent of the Township’s population.

One of them was Capt. Hector Jackson, who had spent several years prior to the war working on his family’s farm on what is now 24 Avenue in Aldergrove. He enlisted in the Canadian Expeditionary Force in 1915 and became a combat engineer, seeing action at such well-known battles as the Somme, Vimy Ridge and Passchendaele. He was eventually awarded the Military Cross for his gallantry, and was gassed just 10 days before the war was over.

He survived that attack and was back home in B.C. for the first Armistice Day. Sadly, he did not live much longer. On Jan. 18, 1920, he was struck by a taxicab while cycling across the Cambie Street Bridge in Vancouver, after attending a performance of the symphony. He struck the bridge’s wooden timbers and suffered head injuries, and died a week later.

He had been enrolled in an engineering course at UBC, and was in third year studies, having been given credit for the first two years due to his military experience.

Hector left behind a remarkable legacy — 130 well-written and descriptive letters about his life in the army, the work he did, the places he served and visited and a great number of wry observations about the people he came into contact with.

These letters were preserved by his parents, and later ended up in the hands of his youngest brother Gerald. who became a physician just before the Second World War and practised in what is now Zimbabwe.

Gerald’s son Andrew came across the letters several years ago, in a trunk of family mementoes that had been sent out of the country for safekeeping after the bush war that led to the formation of Zimbabwe from what had been Rhodesia.

On reading the letters, he felt that they were valuable enough to share with a broader audience. Andrew himself served in the Rhodesian military as an engineer and was familiar with the work his uncle had done. He also recognized that his uncle’s writing style and descriptions show the war from a soldier’s point of view, and in particular from an engineer’s point of view. He decided to write a book with the letters as the central point.

He spent several years working on the book, entitled “A Fine View of the Show.” Through Internet research, he came into contact with Langley’s Warren Sommer, who has been amassing information about Langley First World War Veterans for many years.

He also found the war diaries from the 10th Field Company, Canadian Engineers through Library and Archives Canada. These were invaluable in tracking down where Hector was writing from at a particular time, as the letters did not give geographical locations, due to censorship and the need for secrecy.

“I never could have written this book without the internet,” he said.

Andrew and several other his family members were in Langley last month for the planting of a special tree in Hector Jackson’s memory. The tree is located on 24 Avenue adjacent to the Jackson farm (known as Applegarth) — the road that was named Jackson Road in his memory after his death.

The book is far more than the letters. It contains valuable insights into what Aldergrove was like before the war; the background of the Jackson family, including Hector’s fathers close relationship with famed British poet A.E. Housman; maps showing the various places in France and Belgium where Hector served and valuable footnotes that put many references in the letters into context.

It is an invaluable look at the front, during a war that had a great deal to do with the shaping of our country and the world. It is told from the point of view of a Langley man who had a front-row vantage point.

The book is available through amazon.com and is well worth reading this year, the 90th anniversary of the start of our war remembrances.