Troy Shantz for The Sarnia Journal
Many Sarnians participated in Remembrance Day ceremonies last month to honour those who fought and died for our freedom.
One of them went further, taking the service itself to the final resting place of two Sarnians killed during the Second World War.
Dave Dunn is a local real estate agent and a bit of an adventurer. He recently visited the Netherlands where he left the beaten path to search for the Holten Canadian War Cemetery.
Located about 130 kilometres west of Amsterdam, the immaculately maintained cemetery is the final resting place of nearly 1,400 Canadian soldiers.
Dunn brought with him a copy of The Journal’s
Dave Dunn used a copy of ‘Sarnia at War’ to track down the graves of two Sarnia men.
Submitted Photo
Sarnia at War edition, which featured a four-page “memorial wall” listing the 306 fallen soldiers from Sarnia as well as the location of their graves or memorials.
Getting to Holten was difficult. Dunn missed his train stop and went to the end of the line, where he wound up being locked in a rail car for two hours. Police had to let him out.
When he finally reached Holten, he learned the cemetery was out in the countryside. He set off on foot, in a drizzle, down a back lane.
What kept him going, he said, was the knowledge that the soldiers he came to honour made the ultimate sacrifice in horrific conditions.
Dunn navigated the long rows of white headstones until he located what he’d come for: the final resting place of two men from Sarnia: John McLagan, 37, and William Metcalfe, 24.
He laid a single poppy on each of their graves, and pulling out his cell phone, played a portion of the Remembrance Day services recorded at Veteran’s Park on Nov. 11, including the haunting sounds of The Last Post.
“Getting there, and being there, was powerful stuff,” Dunn said. “I was emotional the whole time.”
When a groundskeeper that helped Dunn find the graves learned he was from Canada, he had the attendant at the closed information centre open it up.
As it happened, Dunn also encountered local students studying the war on a field trip, and their teacher was thrilled to meet him, he said.
Dave Dunn, is a Sarnia real estate agent who trekked through the Dutch countryside in search of a Canadian War cemetary.
“He was overjoyed. He’s got a Canadian, at the Canadian war cemetery, with his students.”
Dunn said he was grateful for the opportunity to express his gratitude to the two men buried so far from home.
“I would recommend to anybody that travels to Europe, find the closest Canadian war cemetery. If you’ve got a little bit of adventure in you, find it. You won’t regret it.”
A 12-minute video Dunn recorded of the cemetery visit can be viewed on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ALrV7hLF5k