A special ceremony took place Sunday evening on the other side of Kempenfelt Bay following the morning's Remembrance Day ceremonies in downtown Barrie.
The World War 1 Armistice Ceremony happened at 4:30 p.m. at Military Heritage Park and saw members of the military, cadets and family members gather to honour those from Barrie and Simcoe County who served in The Great War (1914-18).
Steve Glover, public relations officer and branch historian for Barrie's Royal Canadian Legion branch, hosted the ceremony, which he said was done throughout the country to honour the end of what once was considered the war to end all wars.
“Veterans Canada asked all legions across Canada to be involved in a special commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the end of the First World War,” said Glover. “In addition to the annual Remembrance ceremony at 11 a.m., we had this additional ceremony to take place at the going down of the sun involving the Bells of Peace and collaborating with local churches.”
Local churches rang their bells 100 times at 4:56 p.m. to emulate the moment in 1918 when bells across Europe tolled as four years of war came to an end.
The churches that were on file with the legion for participating were Collier Street United, St George’s Anglican, Holy Spirit Parish, Burton Avenue United, Innisfil Community Church and Craighurst St. John’s Anglican.
Approximately 1,500 Simcoe County men enlisted within the four infantries between 1915 and 1916 and the names are found on the National Rolls of the 37th, 76th, 157th and 177th Battalions.
Glover was also a part of Sunday's Remembrance Day ceremony at Memorial Square, its first time hosting the service since it was completely reconstructed this year, and says that while he is the person who by title would be doing the jobs he did yesterday, that is not why he does it.
“I do public talks about Canadian history and military history and have a love for this and a real desire for this to happen,” said Glover. “This means a lot to me and I know how much it means to the rest of our community and it always needs to be done, to make sure we never forget.”
