52W Mark III – Week 17: War

In Week 45 of the 2022 52 Ancestors Challenge, I wrote about my maternal grandmother’s cousin Lee Anton. I also wrote about Lee as one of the Featured Articles for the 2023 Book of Remembrance published by the British Columbia Genealogical Society. With this week’s writing prompt, I’d like to share what I’ve learned since writing these two pieces.

              The cover of the book.                                        Feature about Lee on page 98.

First, to recap, Lee was a Trooper of the 8th Reconnaissance Regiment (14th Canadian Hussars, also known as the 8th Recce) R.C.A.C. Lee was killed in action on April 12, 1945, age 22, less than a month before V-E Day, in the northern part of the Dutch province of Drenthe, the day before the start of the Battle of Groningen. Along with many of Canada’s other fallen soldiers, Lee is memorialized in two very special ways.

One is through the Second World War Book of Remembrance for the Second World War. Lee is commemorated on page 491.

Lee was also memorialized through Saskatchewan’s “Geo-Memorial” program. You can see Anton Lake, which was named after Lee, on Google Maps. This project is documented in the book, Their Names Live on: Remembering Saskatchewan’s Fallen in World War II.

Lee is interred at the Holten Canadian War Cemetery, located just outside of Holten, Overijssel, Netherlands. It is not far from where Lee was killed.

It was only a few weeks ago that the significance of the date on which Lee had been killed dawned on me. April 12, 1945 is the day that Canadian troops liberated Camp Westerbork. It was the transit point where the Nazis gathered Dutch Jews before sending them to the death camps. It was the first place they interred Anne Frank after she and her family were betrayed.

Going through the regimental diaries for Lee’s regiment, I discovered that it was the 8th Recce that liberated the camp, which the Germans had abandoned hours beforehand.

Entry from the War Diary of the 8th Reconnaissance Regiment for April 12, 1945 documenting the liberation of Camp Westerbork.

Based upon the chronology set out in the diaries and other war records, advancing on the camp was the first thing Lee’s regiment did that day. It means that the fighting in which Lee was killed occurred after the camp was liberated. While the entire regiment was not involved, there were at least 100 members of the regiment present at the camp, so there is a good chance that Lee was present for the liberation of Westerbork.

Lee’s grave as seen on Find a Grave

52W Mark II – Week 45: War and Peace

With Remembrance Day (Veteran’s Day in the United States), this week’s 52 Ancestors Challenge theme is “War and Peace”. Rather than write about my own ancestors’ experiences with war and peace, I’d like to call attention to an exciting undertaking by the British Columbia Genealogical Society (“BCGS”).

Every month the BCGS publishes The BCGS News. For the last few years, it has been only published in electronic format. Every issue since January 2020 is available on the BCGS website. You don’t have to be a member of the society to access this part of the website (although there’s lots of benefits to be one – they just launched their 2024 membership drive!).

In November 2021, the BCGS published a “Veterans Special Edition” of The BCGS News. Members were invited to submit stories about their veteran ancestors, regardless of what conflict in which they had served. Submissions included veterans of the American Revolution, the War of 1812, the Lower Canada Rebellion, the North-West (Riel) Rebellion, the Fenian Raids, the South African War (often referred to as the Second Boer War), World War I, World War II, and the Korean Conflict.

This year, The BCGS News team (spearheaded by its Editor/Designer Sue Sullivan) is going even bigger and better – they’re doing a book! Throughout most of 2023, BCGS members have been encouraged to submit stories and photos of their veteran ancestors – any time in history, any conflict, any place. Moreover, it’s not limited to those who actually fought, it includes those who served in peacetime or on any peacekeeping mission.

The book will be available to BCGS members as a digital download. The editorial team is also considering publishing it in print form, but that has yet to be determined.

Remarkably, I have very few ancestors who served in wartime. They were usually too young or too old to have served in the conflicts of their time and place. However, I provided two submissions for the veterans book, both of which involve individuals I’ve written about in this blog: my maternal grandfather Leo Burgess; and Lee Anton, my maternal grandmother’s second cousin (also her first cousin once removed through a different ancestor). The editor invited me to submit a larger piece on Lee, as she hopes to have a few “featured” veterans.

Lee Anton commemorated on page 491 of the Second World War Book of Remembrance.

My maternal grandfather Leo Burgess during basic training in Peterborough Ontario.

Hopefully the book will be ready by Remembrance Day. I know that it has been a huge undertaking by a small band of volunteers, so it would be understandable if it comes out sometime later this month. Either way, I am really looking forward to it!

52 Weeks – Week 45: Ghost Story

While this week’s 52 Ancestors Challenge theme is “Ghosts”, I don’t really have any ghost stories. So this week’s post might be a bit of a stretch.

This week, on November 11, it is Remembrance Day in Canada and many other countries. In the US, it’s Veterans Day. We think of all those who gave their lives for their country. The fallen are much more than ghosts. They are the lost, who were robbed of their futures, many with no descendants to remember them. One of those fallen was Lee Anton, my maternal grandmother’s second cousin (also her first cousin once removed through a different ancestor).

Lee was a farm boy from a practically non-existent village in south-west Saskatchewan. That village, Rastadt, is no longer even a ghost town. All that remains of it is the cemetery and a one-room schoolhouse. Lee would have turned 100 this year. Instead, he died at 22, in the liberation of the Netherlands.

Lee was a Trooper of the 8th Reconnaissance Regiment (14th Canadian Hussars) R.C.A.C. Lee was killed in action on April 12, 1945, less than a month before V-E Day, in the northern part of the Dutch province of Drenthe, the day before the start of the Battle of Groningen. Along with many of Canada’s other fallen soldiers, Lee is memorialized in two very special ways.

One is through the Book of Remembrance for the Second World War. This is one of seven books that are normally housed in the Memorial Chamber at the top of the Peace Tower of the Centre Block at Parliament Hill in Ottawa. However, they are being temporarily displayed elsewhere while the Parliament Buildings undergo renovations. The books record the names of over 120,000 Canadians who lost their lives in various conflicts Canada has been a part of. Every morning, a page of each book is turned, so throughout the year every name can be seen. The books can be searched online. The result will include a link to an image of the page the person appears upon, as well as a link to a virtual memorial hosted by Veterans Affairs Canada.

Lee is commemorated on page 491 of the Second World War Book of Remembrance.

Lee’s memory is also commemorated by a lake in northern Saskatchewan that is named after him, Anton Lake, which you can see on Google Maps. From 1947 to 1965, the province operated a “Geo-Memorial” program by which it named lakes and other geographic features after people from Saskatchewan who died in WWII. This project, as well as the stories of some of the veterans who were commemorated this way, is documented in the book, Their Names Live on: Remembering Saskatchewan’s Fallen in World War II.

Lee is interred at the Holten Canadian War Cemetery, located just outside of Holten, Overijssel, Netherlands.