JOGGINS, N.S. – Pte. Arselle Delveaux left his family behind when he immigrated from Belgium in the early 1900s to work in the coal mines at Joggins.
When the First World War broke out in 1914, he enlisted and went to fight for his new country. He was 39 years old when he lost his life in April 18, 1918 at Ypres, but his name has never appeared on any memorial in his adopted country.
That is until now, 100 years after the conclusion of the war that took his life and thousands like him. Delveaux is just one of 10 names that will be added to the cenotaph at Joggins in ceremony that will take place sometime before Remembrance Day.
“These people would have enlisted here in Joggins and went overseas to fight, but when the war ended a lot of families moved away from Joggins,” said Dara Legere, vice-president and secretary of the Joggins branch of the Royal Canadian Legion. “When the cenotaph was built in 1948 they used the honour rolls from the three churches in the community. If you didn’t belong to one of those churches you didn’t get recognized.”
Three of people were from the former community of Shulee while the families of the others had left the community.
“Pte. Delveaux was 36 years old when he came to Joggins to work in the mines. He left his family behind in Belgium. He enlisted here, joined the Canadian Army and was killed in Belgium. He still has family there,” Legere said.
Pte. Thomas Hamilton fought with the Royal Scottish Regiment. His family came to Canada but he stayed in Scotland and when war broke out he fought and died. He still has family in Joggins.
Pte. Spurgeon MacLeod was born in Joggins and when his family left for the United States he stayed to work in the mines. He went to war and lost his life, while Cpl. Roy Mills flew with the Royal Flying Corps. He died from the Spanish Influenza after he returned to Canada.
Privates Charles Jenkins, William Mills and Clifford Phillips were from Shulee while Privates Edward Cormier and Archie Downey and Sapper Rufus Kennedy were from Joggins.
“Some of them died after the war from injuries they got there and some died of the influenza,” he said. “The Canadian government recognized anyone who died after the war from their wounds for several years.”
Legere said his research was helped a lot by having access to war records that until recently were not public. He said he used records from Library and Archives Canada, the Commonwealth War Graves Commission and the Canadian Great War Project.
“We researched the records from World War One and if they were born in Joggins, lived in Joggins or enlisted from Joggins, we took their names and researched if they were killed as a result of the war,” Legere said. “We compared them to the names on the cenotaph and noticed some names were missing.”
Liberty Enterprises of Brookdale is working on the plaque that will be placed on the base of the cenotaph, although a date for the rededication hasn’t been set.
To prepare for that, volunteers with the legion have been making repairs to the cenotaph and with the help of Casey Concrete and Gray Concrete Foundations a new walkway was built from the street to the base of the memorial, making it wheelchair accessible.
Two new flagpoles are being put in place and the monument will be cleaned and treated.
“The base is 70 years old and the soldier at the top was put there in 1956,” Legere said. “When it’s all completed the project will be probably be about a $15,000 job.”
Funding was received from Veterans Affairs Canada and the provincial government as well as the Municipality of Cumberland. The legion has also been fundraising.
“The community has really come together to support this project,” he said. “The work being done was really needed. There were issues with the steps leading up to the monument and we had a couple of people trip and fall, while the monument itself really needed a good cleaning. We felt it had to be done and it had to be done now.”
Twitter: @ADNdarrell
