There is a plaque on the wall at Richmond Secondary School that’s a tangible reminder to its students that young people – not much older than themselves – fought and died in the First and Second World Wars.
Meimei Roth, who’s in Grade 12, said for the first few years she attended Richmond Secondary, she hardly noticed the wooden plaque.
“These are heroes who sacrificed their lives for our future,” Roth said about the people behind the names on the plaque.
A memory or a story can be passed on, but the plaque is a “physical embodiment” of the stories of Richmond High students who served their country during both world wars, explained fellow Grade 12 student Kadin Raza.
“It can’t be forgotten if it’s physically in our hallways and we can see it in our everyday lives,” he said.
For Raza, who has family members who were in the war, the plaque is a reminder it could have been him going off to war.
While young people his age today are thinking about their post-secondary education and what job they’ll have in the future, the young people of the war generation were marching off to fight and possibly lose their lives on the frontlines of battle.
“It seems like a distant nightmare,” Raza said.
Raza pointed out that those going to the First and Second World Wars were so young, they probably weren’t thinking much about death.
But if society “markets” the war as an adventure, he could see its appeal to young men, he added.
“Even I could be ‘oh, that could be fun,’” Raza said. “But if you take the counter-point and actually talk about what could happen to you, it’s completely different.”
“I think they definitely under-estimated the difficulties of actually going in – they just threw themselves in and thought, it’ll be fine, it’ll be an adventure in Europe,” Roth added. “But unfortunately, that’s not how it ended.”
The names of those students from Richmond Secondary (or Richmond High as it was called then) who died in the wars are also reflected on street names in Richmond, adorned with poppies to remind drivers of their sacrifices.
“Every time I drive by and there are the poppies, it makes me think … about the lives of those people and their families, too, as well as their legacies,” Raza said.
Roth and Raza are co-emceeing the school’s Remembrance Day ceremony, which has been recorded in advance because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Some street names reflecting Richmond High School students
Olafsen Avenue: Warrant Officer Gordon William Olafsen was born in Steveston in 1922. He enlisted in the Royal Canadian Air Force in September 1942. His plane was lost Pesche, Belgium, on Dec. 18, 1944. He left behind his parents and four brothers, Robert, Ernest, John and Norman.
Moffatt Road: Bernard Joy Moffatt was born in Fernie but moved to Richmond as a teenager. He was a pilot in Second World War, but his plane never returned from a mission while he was stationed in Malta. His body was never found, but his name is inscribed on the Malta War Memorial.
Gage Road: Pilot Officer Donald Irwin Gage was born in Bow Island, Alta., and moved to Richmond in 1932. He first joined the Canadian Army in June 1941, but later switched to the Royal Canadian Air Force in May 1942. On his 31st operation, his plane crashed over Louvain, Belgium. He is buried in Aardenburg, Zeeland, Holland. He left behind his wife Lorraine and daughter Vicky Lynn.
