Remembrance Day in Sydenham

Nov 17, 2011

Photo: WWll veteran Ted Lansdell lays a wreath in Sydenham

Hundreds gathered for the Remembrance Day Service held at the cenotaph in Sydenham led by Captain, the Reverend Judson Bridgewater, the Sydenham Legion’s Padre.

In a moving address Padre Bridgewater spoke of the difficulty of trying to “make sense of the hell we call war, where we tread a fine line between honoring our heroes and trying to avoid glorifying war. It's a difficult balancing act between condemning and condoning,” he said. He spoke of the confusion Remembrance Day can bring for all and the need in this war-torn world to avoid becoming cynical and indifferent. “How do you and I not give up on this world where people continue to suffer and where war continues despite the sacrifices made by so many. In a word, it’s hope, and it is my sincere hope that one day peace and love will prevail.”

Fraser Strong played the Last Post and Reveille and John Pickernell, president of the Sydenham Legion, read an address from Prime Minister Stephen Harper. Haley Caird gave an emotional reading of the poem “In Flanders Fields” followed by various members of the community who were invited by Valerie Ruttan to place wreaths.

One distinguished wreath layer was Verona resident and WWll veteran Ted Lansdell who, at 92 years of age, is the oldest veteran at Sydenham Legion.

Ted grew up in London, Ontario, where he received his army training. He served for five years in WWll, from 1940-1945. Two of those years were served in combat in the 1st Division of the Canadian Armed Forces, in postings in Italy, France, Belgium, Germany and North Africa.

Ted joined the army at the age of 21 in 1940 and served as a Mechanist Sergeant Major. He gave advanced workshops in repairing vehicles that were damaged in battle, usually by land mines. That work, he said, often put himself and his comrades in harm’s way. “We worked as close to the front as we could and would often set up the workshops that consisted of blacksmiths, carpenters - all of the trades - in locations pretty close to the front lines.”

In one instance in southern Italy in 1943, Lansdell recalled his troops working “with the German guns firing over our heads one way and our guns coming the other way and we being set up right there in the middle.” At one time he came to harm when shrapnel sprayed him in the chest. He recalled, “It didn't do too much damage though. It just hit the breast bone and they took me to the hospital, put me under and took it out.”

That being said, working so close to the front did take some getting used to. “The gunfire would go on all night and somehow you just got used to it and somehow we learned how to sleep with that going on around us,” Ted said. He also remembered sleeping under the olive trees in Italy with just a sleeping bag and a ground sheet and having to clear away the salamanders and scorpions before bedding down for the night.

Lansdell was in Holland when the war finally came to an end in 1945. He returned to Canada where he got a job as a mechanic and married his wife Irene in 1948. The couple moved to Verona in 1952 when Ted and a partner bought a dealership and opened Verona Motors Ltd. He and his wife had three children.

What does Ted take away from his war experience? “The memories are good and bad. It goes both ways. I saw a few dead bodies on the battlefield but it seems to me that when you're young you don't get as bothered by stuff. It's later when you get older that you tend to think of it differently.”

Asked about his feelings about war in general, he replied, “Unfortunately I think that we will always have war and rumors of war in some form or another.”

Remembrance Ceremonies in the Region

Top: The legion Colour Guard in Arden

Left: Sergeant Jordana Sproule visited Clarendon Central Public Scholl and brought along her grandmother Barb Sroule. Photo courtesy Rhona Watkins

Top Left: Land O'Lakes Publid School students presenting gifts for Armed Forces members after the Moountain Grove ceremony

Top Right: Student cadets assist with the North Addidngton Education Centre Remembrance Day assembly. Photo: Kayla Cuddy.

Right: Members of the Sharbot Lake High School Glee Club performed their version of John Lennon's song "Imagine".