My first non-fiction read this year is They Never Came Home, The Lethbridge Cenotaph Project.
This is a collection of biographies relating to the 262 soldiers from World War I who are remembered on the cenotaph in Lethbridge, Alberta. Compiled by Brett Clifton using materials from the National Archives and local history sources, the biographies document their personal lives, military service, and circumstances of death. Grave photos and personal photos are included whenever possible.
More than 60,000 young Canadians perished during World War I. They were fathers, husbands, sons and brothers who simply never came home. It is said that Lethbridge endured the highest per capita loss of men of any community in Canada. It is impossible to tell how different Lethbridge may have been without the sacrifice of these fallen heroes.
information derived from http://www.uleth.ca/lib/digitized_Collections/display.asp?PageID=251
This is HORRIFIC. It is HEARTBREAKING.
I can't believe all these young men who didn't come home. An entire generation lost. An entire male population...gone. What happened to the girls back home? Their hope and future gone.
I can't stop thinking about all the lives lost. All the lives changed forever.
1 comment:
Hi there,
Having written the book that you are reading, I am very pleased that it is having such an impact on you. I understand how you feel because it was also very emotional to write, and if these losses weren't tragic enough, a second generation went to war just a few decades later and the sad losses were repeated.
There is a part 2 to They Never Came Home, which memorializes the 130 Lethbridge men who perished in the Second World War and are remembered on the Lethbridge Cenotaph. It was published in the fall of 2010 and though the stories are a little different, they are just as compelling as those of the generation before.
Brett Clifton
brett.clifton@uleth.ca
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