Editorially speaking...
This being Remembrance Day I've no wish to get into anything contentious so I'll content myself with a few notes on this, what I consider to be the most important day of the year...
How many times I've 'rescued' them at garage sales, flea markets and antique sales. I'm referring to old family photos, scrapbooks, even medals and uniforms. I realize that some families actually die out and there's no one of direct descent left to carry on, so some memorabilia can become redundant.
But I've seen things for sale that are so personal and of such obvious sentimental value that I cringe. To treat a man's medals, for one, like you'd display a coffee cup or any other common commodity on a jumbled table of odds 'n' sods isn't just disrespectful, it's sacrilege!
Now don't get me wrong. I'm not blaming collectors and dealers of militaria; they, in my view, show more respect for these personal artifacts than many a family member. They buy these military icons as collectors' items and give them respect and a home.
Which I've done on occasion despite, sometimes, not really wanting to get involved...
Take this photo of a Canadian Scottish officer and (presumably) his son, bought at this year's Duncan United Church's Harvest Fair. I'm guessing it's 1940s vintage. It was on a table of everyday household items; cost me all of 50 cents.
On the back it's stamped Scott Camera Craft, Sussex Building, Victoria.
This lady's photo has been used as a backing for the soldier's!
I don't doubt that most people who might have been tempted to pick it up would have been more interested in the frame than the photo.
This certainly was the case of a garage sale at Shawnigan Lake 40 years ago when I spied a box of framed b&w photos in a box on the floor. There were half-a-dozen family portraits and one of a strapping First World War soldier in his new uniform. They were all of the same family, the soldier, his dad and mom and, probably, his sister, as the same house was in the background.
My mother wanted them for the frames; I wanted the photos. As I paid the seller her asking price of $4 she casually mentioned that "they possibly are of a local family" but she wasn't sure. I don't remember asking her where she got them.
My late neighbour Bob Dougan ID'd them at a glance: the Jeffrey family who lived on Cameron-Taggart Road. The soldier was their son, Tom, killed at Vimy and listed on the Cobble Hill Cenotaph.
Well, Tom Jeffrey is still in the original family frame and hanging on my wall, the family shots in my archives. Someone in the family may not have cared to keep the photos but I sure do.
HMS Shearwater was a Condor-class sloop launched in 1900. She served on the Pacific Station and in 1915 was transferred to the Royal Canadian Navy as HMCS Shearwater, serving as a submarine depot ship until 1919. She was sold to the Western Shipping Company in May 1922 and renamed Vedas. --Wikipedia
Thanks my having written the Chronicles in the Citizen for almost a quarter of a century, some photos and mementos have come to me. This great shot of the crew of HMCS Shearwater is courtesy of the late Tom McEwan. His paternal great uncle John Davidson of Ladysmith was killed in action, aged 23, in 1917.
Make no mistake: Tom valued this picture--mine is a copy. He did give me the original edition of the Colonist showing a gallery of Ladysmith men, among them John Davidson, who were serving overseas.
Perhaps I should be grateful to COVID for there not having been many garage sales or flea markets for two years now, hence little necessity for me to have to ride to the rescue of more family mementos...
* * * * *