More than a year after Andrew Wilkie began recording unmarked graves of veterans at the Aberdeen Cemetery, he has finally finished the project for the Alder Grove Heritage Society.
The society has joined the No Stone Left Alone program this year, a charity that aims to educate youth about Canada’s military history.
“We will get to connect with the local schools, and bring the kids out to the cemetery, and have a ceremony with them. Their classes will create poppies and wreaths, and they can lay them out on the veteran graves,” Wilkie told The Star.
On Wednesday, Nov. 6, the society, some legion members, and Grade 5 students from Shortreed Elementary will go to Aberdeen Cemetery to lay hand painted stones with poppies, read In Flanders Fields, and a moment of silence.
Aldergrove legion member Shaun Francis, who is also the parade marshal for the local Remembrance Day ceremony, said it's important to involve students with remembrance events.
"The more we impress on these young folks remembrance, and learning how and why it's important to remember our veterans and those that are no longer with us," Francis said.
The ceremony takes place Nov. 6 to honour 57 veterans interred at Aberdeen, during Veterans' Week, at 10 a.m. to noon.
The cemetery is located at 28417 Fraser Hwy., and the ceremony is open to the public.
Wilkie started the project earlier last year after he noticed many graves were covered in dirt – some blackened, even – so he got permission from the City of Abbotsford to clean them.
In doing so, Wilkie realized that many grave markers were abandoned. He grew curious of their stories.
He joined the Alder Grove Heritage Society as a volunteer to help record veterans buried at the cemetery, formerly called the Aldergrove Cemetery.
“I’m very much interested in military history, because my family fought in World War I and II. I had a great grand uncle who died in the Battle of Somme in 1916, and I have their medals,” Wilkie said in an interview with The Star last year.
The Battle of Somme of the First World War was fought by the British and French against the Germans between July 1 and Nov. 18, 1916.
“I enjoy the history,” he said.
There were three parts to his project, Wilkie explained. It started with updating the society’s own honour roll, which last year when he began only had 32 names of Aldergrove veterans.
“The second part is to identify all the veterans in this cemetery, because a lot of these people are pioneer families,” he said.
That required him to sort through more than 200 names, to narrow the list of veterans down to the 57 being honoured at Wednesday's ceremony.
The last part was joining the No Stone Left Alone program and holding the ceremony.
One veteran Wilkie noted who was buried in Aberdeen is William Franklin, who survived the Nagasaki atomic bombing and wrote a book about his experience as a prisoner of war – which the society has in its museum.
“I’ve always wanted to clean the markers and do the research, because as you’re cleaning it you wonder, ‘who was this person?’” Wilkie said.
Through his volunteer grave cleaning, Wilkie has met some of the descendants and family members of those buried in Aberdeen.
It isn’t only the markers he cleans, but also trimming the grass around the edges and pulling out the weeds.
“I do as much as I can. When you go look at somebody’s grave marker, and there’s grass over it, and you can’t even read it, I don’t know, to me it’s just disrespectful,” Wilkie shared.
"It's a project worth doing, I believe," Francis commended.
What did surprise Wilkie in doing this project was how many Aldergrove veterans he found at the cemetery.
"I did not expect to find 57," he said.
For those interested in cleaning their family or friend’s grave markers, or anybody’s at a cemetery, Wilkie recommends using soft brushes, a lot of water, and 30-Second Cleaner to remove the lichen.
“Sometimes it takes a few weeks, respraying, and scrubbing, and it comes out white,” he said. “To me I’m showing respect to these people.”