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Bermuda's War Veterans

Always honored especially on Remembrance Day at eleventh hour of eleventh day of eleventh month

By Keith Archibald Forbes (see About Us) exclusively for Bermuda Online

To refer to this file use "bermuda-online.org/war veterans.htm" as your Subject. 

The author also writes other military files relating to Bermuda, namely 

• American Military Bases in Bermuda until 1995

• American Military Personnel Based in Bermuda 1941-1995 (several files) 

• British Army Units in Bermuda until 1953

• Canadian Forces in Bermuda until 1995

• Royal Navy Dockyard in Bermuda until 1953

Introduction

Here in Bermuda, Canada, United Kingdom and elsewhere in the British Commonwealth of Nations, Remembrance Day, at the Cenotaph on Front Street  in the city of Hamilton every November 11 is a very solemn day. For Bermuda Volunteer Rifle Corps (BVRC, 1894-1946) Association Members, Friends, Families and Community members who are interested, it normally begins with an appearance at the BVRC War Memorial at Victoria Park, Hamilton, for a Parade and Service of Remembrance, with laying of wreaths and roll of honour. Then  at 11 am, it is a parade for all surviving Bermuda veterans of World Wars and Korean War (none served in the more recent Gulf Wars or in Afghanistan or Iraq), in both the BVRC and other Bermuda military units such as the Bermuda Militia Artillery, etc. at that time. Bermuda veterans of World Wars 1 and 2 and Korean War of the 1950s were mostly in the Bermuda Home Guard or serving abroad in the British Army (Mostly Caribbean Regiment or Lincolnshire Regiment), Royal Navy, Royal Marines, Merchant Navy, Royal Air Force, Royal Canadian  Air Force and Royal Canadian Navy.  

If well enough to appear, they do so wearing their medals and march down part of Front Street.

However, due to the rain, the usual 11th November 2009ceremony at the Cenotaph in Hamilton was cancelled. Instead,  hundreds gathered in Hamilton to pay tribute to those who died for their country. A 'Service of Remembrance' saw the Cathedral of the Most Holy Trinity filled with persons eager to pay their respect to those who lost their lives in the First and Second World Wars. Among those present were Governor Sir Richard Gozney, Premier Ewart Brown, United Bermuda Party Leader Kim Swan and several veterans. The crowd joined in singing hymns, and a two-minute silence done every year on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month commemorated the end of the First Word War.

Had the rain not intervened on 11 November 2009, as fewer and fewer are well enough to do so every year, or die, relatives of people who served in the First and Second World Wars were invited to march in the 2009 Remembrance Day parade. In conjunction with the Royal British Legion (RBL) represented in Bermuda a separate unit for war veterans' families was to have been led through the streets by an officer from the Bermuda Regiment. All relatives or descendants of a World War veteran were invited to take part. Participants are welcome to wear the medals or awards of the person they are representing. It was stressed they must wear the decorations on the right arm rather than the left. The RBL is a registered charity that works to assist war veterans and their widows. RBL Bermuda belongs to a worldwide organisation that can provide a wide range of assistance. Some of the services include assistance with medical bills, assistance with urgent loans and assistance with Christmas presents. RBL Bermuda call also upon the Royal British Legion's head office in London for larger capital funds and grants.

Lillian Levon, 92, and Calvin Ming Snr, 86, had been invited by the Cabinet Office to join traditional wreath layers at the ceremony which honours those who fought and died for their country. Mrs. Levon for her husband's unit, the Bermuda Militia Infantry (BMI). Her late husband Joseph William Levon served Bermuda in both World Wars. Mr. Calvin Ming Snr, a Second World War Two veteran, was with the Bermuda Militia Artillery (BMA) and honoured the other 105 Bermudians who volunteered to go to war through the BMA and BMI. At age 19 Mr. Ming shipped out of Bermuda and spent several years fighting in Italy and North Africa.

Accompanied by the Bermuda Regiment Band and Corps of Drums, the Salvation Army, North Village and Somerset Brigade Bands, and the Bermuda Islands Pipe Band, they reflect on their comrades who fought for freedom. At 11 a.m. guns fire at Fort Hamilton and Ordnance Island, St. George's, to signal the two-minute silence, held every year on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month to commemorate the end of the First World War. 

Wreaths are laid by the Governor, Premier, Hamilton Mayor, Opposition Leader, the president of the War Veterans' Association, the Defence Board chairman, the Regiment's commanding officer, the Commissioner of Police and the Chief Fire Officer. 

They are followed by former members or on behalf of the Bermuda Home Guard and Bermuda Contingent of the Caribbean Regiment.  A service takes place in the Bermuda Cathedral in the event of wet weather.

The town of St. George's also remembers the Island's war heroes, at a Remembrance Day Parade in the Town Square opposite the War Memorial. Those present include the Mayor, The Royal Artillery and Ex-Artillerymen's Association, Bermuda Island Pipe Band, The Bermuda Regiment Band & Corp of Drums, Bermuda Sea Cadets, St. George's Girl Guides, Bermuda Fire Service, Bermuda Regiment Wreath Bearers, Bermuda Regiment Gun Troop, and the Boy Scouts all participate in the ceremony.

At the HMS Jervis Bay memorial at Albouy's Point, The Bermuda Sea Cadets host a Remembrance Day service. It is one of a number of memorial events around the world to honour those who served on the HMS Jervis Bay, a 50,000 ton container ship that visited Bermuda during the war years before it was sunk as it confronted the superior firepower of a German warship in 1940 while escorting a convoy from Canada to the UK.

If veterans served with a British unit - as most of them did - they also get the HM Armed Forces Veterans Badge, and a War Pension from the United Kingdom. Eligibility to this prestigious badge was widened following Remembrance Day 2005 to include all those who served between the end of the Second World War and December, 1954, thus encompassing the Korean War and military campaigns in Malaya undertaken by British forces. Another local veteran, also honored, served in Korea with the  US Army. Unlike in the UK, USA, Canada, etc. there are no retirement homes or hospitals specifically for World War veterans. Some Bermuda veterans have had to pay more than $100,000 out of their own money if they have it to overseas hospitals for operations, owing to a lack of affordable medical insurance and no social conscience in Bermuda from taxpayers' resources. If they don't have the funds, they don't get treated overseas.

However, in Bermuda, registered veterans and their widows get a Bermuda War Pensions benefit of $800 a month, plus full coverage on all prescription drugs, medical tests at King Edward VII Memorial Hospital and partial coverage for medical visits to local medical general practitioners and specialists.

In England, on every Sunday before Remembrance Day in London, the Foreign Secretary, on behalf of the Foreign & Commonwealth Office, London, England, which administers Bermuda, lays before the Cenotaph (later copied by Bermuda) in London a wreath to the fallen who died in the wars from the British Overseas Territories. He is accompanied by the UK's Prime Minister, and leaders of the Opposition - those from the main Conservative and Liberal Democrat parties. 

The wreath is supplied to the FCO by the Directors and Staff of, and hand-made at, Kew Gardens, Britain's finest gardens, from flowers and botanicals in its collection from all the Overseas Territories including some prized Bermudiana. It always includes sprigs of two endemic Bermuda species, the Juniperus bermudiana (Bermuda Cedar) tree and Chiococca bermudiana (Bermuda snowberry) shrub.

Organizations involved

Bermuda's Roll of Honour Sons 

Poppy poem

Poppies have been since World War 1 the national and international symbol for British airmen, soldiers, sailors and marines who perished while serving their country in world wars and the Korean conflict.  When we mourn Bermuda's dead in Remembrance Day ceremonies each November, we think of a flower - a poppy. Why? Because of the following immortal lines from a poem: "If ye break faith with us who die, we will not sleep, though poppies grow in Flander's fields." 

The author of this famous "poppy" poem was Colonel John McCrae, who was a distinguished professor of Medicine at McGill University after he served in the Boer War. On the outbreak of war in 1914, he at once enlisted in the Canadian Army, 1st Brigade Artillery, which was sent to fight in Belgium. 

Soon after landing in Europe, he was made Medical Officer. During the second battle of Ypres in 1915 he was so horrified, appalled and heart-sick over the senseless slaughter of so many hundreds of thousands of men that he penned the following words, used to this day on 11th November. 

These verses were sent anonymously to the British magazine Punch, which published them in December 1915 under the title "In Flanders' Fields." 

Colonel McCrae died from his battle wounds in 1918.

The poem expressed McCrae's grief over the "row on row" of graves of soldiers who had died on Flanders' battlefields, located in a region of western Belgium and northern France. The poem presented a striking image of the bright red flowers blooming among the rows of white crosses and became a rallying cry to all who fought in the First World War. McCrae's poem had a huge impact on two women, Anna E. Guerin of France and Georgia native Moina Michael. Both worked hard to initiate the sale of artificial poppies to help orphans and others left destitute by the war. By the time Guerin established the first sale in the U.S., in 1920 with the help of The American Legion, the poppy was well known in the allied countries — America, Britain, France, Canada, Australia and New Zealand — as the "Flower of Remembrance." Proceeds from that first sale went to the American and French Children's League. Guerin had difficulty with the distribution of the poppies in early 1922 and sought out Michael for help. Michael had started a smaller-scaled Poppy Day during a YMCA conference she was attending in New York and wanted to use the poppies as a symbol of remembrance of the war. Guerin, called the "Poppy Lady of France" in her homeland, and Michael, later dubbed "The Poppy Princess" by the Georgia legislature, went to the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) for help. Following its first nationwide distribution of poppies in 1922, the VFW adopted the poppy as its official memorial flower. However, a shortage of poppies from French manufacturers led to the idea of using unemployed and disabled veterans to produce the artificial flowers.

1. Great War of 1914 to 1918

They died fighting for Bermuda and the UK. Sorry, this author has no details about which Bermuda Parish they were from. Input will be welcomed from any surviving relatives and will be added here. 

Officers and NCOs of Bermuda Contingent, Royal Garrison Artillery, who served in France in World War 1. Photographed in England prior to their departure to the front. One of those was William (Lanky) Furbert.

Bermudians en route by ship to France in World War 1.

Philip Tatem, BVRC, 1st Bn. Lincolnshire Regiment, killed September 25, 1916 at Battle of the Somme. One of those who went by sea to France on the ship above.  He was the great-uncle of Sherri Panchaud Onorati who kindly sent this photo. 

2. World War 2 1939-1945

They died fighting for Bermuda and the UK. Sorry, this author has no details about which Bermuda Parish they were from. Input will be welcomed.