Rest In Peace

In Flanders Fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

Rest in peace John. It does not matter that you were not able to serve in the front lines, but that your head and heart were in the right place and made the attempt to do so.

We Will Remember Them

*The RCL Br i belong to has lowered its flag.

At first glance I thought it was a young John Diefenbaker. I heard an interview with his wife. She said he was pleased to see his eulogy unfold. She asked people to light a candle to all of the vets. Classy lady.

I remember as a kid going to the cenataph in Whitby Ontario on Remembrance day. There'd be probably 200 ww2 vets - they'd be in their 50's and maybe 50 ww1 vets who'd be in their 70's. Hard to believe all the ww1's are gone- all 600,000 of them.

Well done John Babcock - Rest in peace.

109 years old. Good for him.

I hope any members of the RCR will forgive a sailor for saying "Pro Patria" to this fine gent.

And being a guy fairly stuck in his ways, I gotta give credit to Mr. Babcock, the same hair cut for 90 years!

Rest easy sir, the watch has been turned over.

God speed Mr. Babcock. Thank you for your service to our country. We will never forget.

Makes me remember my grandfather, passed at 96 back in the '80s. First Canadian Contingent, artillery.

All gone now. But I remember them.

Read this last night online. 109 years old...and in the picture of him, he didn't look a day over 80. Kept himself in incredibly good health.

Rest in peace, sir.

Kate:
Have you seen this about Canada & Israel?
Some pretty strong words I must say.

http://www.thestar.com/mobile/news/canada/article/766681--military-action-against-iran-still-on-the-table-kent-says

From below the 49th, I salute.

Thank You, my Canadian Brothers and Sisters.

Rest in Peace John.

Rest in Peace Pops. WWII Paratrooper, Flying Eagles, 101st Airborne.

Robert Service:

The gallant 'Old Contemptibles'!
There isn't much that's left of them,
all dressed up in their glory
and marching in their pride;
for some are cold as clabber,
and the corby picks the brains of them;
and some are back in Blighty,
and wishing they had died.

End of an era. Rest in peace, thank you for your service, may our country never forget.

I was struck by the quote at the end of the story. While nowadays everyone would solemnly nod their heads over the first sentence, it's the last sentence that separates the real men of that era from the panty-waist latte-sipping wimps of today.

Those men knew life and understood that reality is what it is, and not what they would wish it to be. If only we had men like that today...

My condolences to the Babcock family,and thanks John for your service in the "Great War". My Grandfather was a signalman with the Canadian Artillery and told me many of his war stories when I was a lad. He was happy that the war ended before John and many others had to "see the Front". Too many needless deaths....We will remember them.

Hawkeye

Not "needless deaths" but rather a grim necessity.
The war was necessary hence any casualties were justified.....regrettable but justified.
101st airborne here....that's the way we call it.

As a young boy, in the early 60s, I had the honour of knowing a few WW1 vets. At that time, they were still healthy, and willing to share some of their adventures. One had the scars of a gas attack on his face. One was only 14 when he signed up. All of them had larger than life personalities.

They were fortunate to have never endured criticism from the usual crowd of protestors. I'd guess if someone had called them baby burners, they'd have turned them upside down, in a big hurry.

They didn't speak in hushed whispers, like the CBC portrays them in every documentary. I never sensed the slightest tone of regret, or guilt in any of their stories. They did what had to be done.

I can't explain what I feel right now, except as a great sense of loss.

I'm sure John Babcock said a lot of things during his lifetime. Naturally, the CBC chose to highlight: "I think it would be nice if all the different people in the world could get along together."

Well, forget them. RIP Mr. Babcock.

Rest now, soldier. I suspect the lads are welcoming you with open arms, the last but not least to arrive on the distant shore.

Not just a man who died but a bit of history.
RIP.

Like you dp and phantom, I knew many WWI vets and my parents and their friends were mostly WWII vets. Most of the WWI vets were gentlemen of a different time, in a league of their own. They had great love for the men that they had served with and most families felt that their WWI vet was closer to his war pals than to them. I believe that the reason for this great love was the horror of that war; especially the trenches. One man who was a great friend of my grandad, lived with a dozen or so cats at all times (he lived alone at his old homestead acquired before he went overseas) because he hated rats and the cats killed any rats or mice within a mile radius. The horrors that those young men saw were well beyond anything we have ever had nightmares about; yet they came home and made the best life Canada could offer them and they did not whine. They were honorable and brave and they were true patriots (no special vets rights were waiting for the WWI vets when they came marching home). Mr. Babcock lived in the best of times and the worst of times - in the best of company.

He will now be in the company of all the other Guardians of honor and bravery in heaven. I believe God has a special place in Heaven for all those brave soldiers who fought for their country and for their families (on both sides). There will be a big party in Heaven as the boys are all home now - we must try to keep the torch of freedom held high and never, never forget how selflessly they fought and died for us.

As time passes the number of current stories that spring from the Great War are fewer and fewer.

This gentleman's passing marks the beginning of the fading of the public memory of the that war into something like what the Boer War is today - little known about and little of it understood by the general public. History repeats itself, or perhaps more correctly echoes itself, as a result.

I light of the reality that there may be very few opportunities outside of Remembrance Day to recognize relatives of mine who served in the great war I will tell you that:

My grandfather on my father's side - Ralph Tulk and his brother Stan both were Blue Puttees - part of the First 500 to sail from Nfld. to Egypt and then on to Suvla Bay (Gallipoli). After that theatre subsidied they were then stationed along the Somme and my Granfather was there on the first day when 700 plus Nflders were killed or wounded out of a total force of just over 800. Apparently he was an ambulance driver (imagine that job) and thus did not "go over" and participate in that midday slaughter. Later the regiment was moved to passchendale and saw action there.

The NFLD regiment experienced the highest casualty rate of any in the history of the British Empire. Stan was spared much of it due to illness the kept him hospitalized in Britain for much of the war.

My Grandfather lived into his eighties and was hugely respected and feared in Western Nfld. He rarely spoke of the war and when he did he talked about the fantastic friendship and comradery of the regiment. He was also a passionate supporter of the legion.

Perhaps the largest casualty was NFLD. itself. Its leading elite was bled white with well over half of the upper and upper middle-class men between the ages of 18 and 28 not surviving. 30 years later, when these men would have reached their prime, NFLD was sold down the river to Canada.

On my mother's side, my grandfather and his brother both served. My grandfather was yellow- feathered and joined at the age of 16. He was gassed and wounded in the leg and used a cane the rest of his life. My great uncle after who I am named, Gordon Darcy Lee, was a captain and was shoot and killed by a sniper on the Somme. Like him I went to OAC though I knew virtually nothing of that or him until his sisters gave me a photo album of his from his days at OAC over thanksgiving dinner two years after I had enrolled in OAC.

Their sister Marjorie was deeply in love with a boy at OAC - she was enrolled at Macdonald college. He was killed in the war and she never married. A marvelous woman apparently but one who never recovered from the loss.

My apologies for taking up bandwidth Kate, but I felt the need to get these facts out there - anecdotal flesh to put on the bones of this man's generation's passing.

My great-great uncle Alf fought in the Great War. He passed away in 1997 at the age of 102. I suspect he was one of the last Canadians - if not the last - to actually lead men in battle in that war. He was shipped out in 1915 and would not return until 1919. He acheived the rank of Sergeant and was awarded the Distiguished Conduct Medal for actions at Passchendaele. He was wounded at the Battle of Mont Sorrel (pre-cursor to the Somme) and carried the shrapnel in his leg for the rest of his life.

Until his dying day he had a clear mind and amazing memory. And, unlike many veterans of that war, he had no problem talking about what he saw and did. The attitude was "we did what we had to do." I will always remember those times as a teenager, actually sitting at his feet - him in a rocking chair and me listening to the stories of events that I had only read about in books.

They were very much a different breed. They lived for years in conditions that are truly unimaginable by today's standards.

Let's put it this way: If we captured Bin Laden and made him spend a week living in the conditions that the soldiers of WWI endured, the latte crowd would be accusing the government of "war crimes."

I wish there were more people today who understood the real meaning of hardship, sacrifice, and dedication to a cause.

"I'm sure John Babcock said a lot of things during his lifetime. Naturally, the CBC chose to highlight: 'I think it would be nice if all the different people in the world could get along together.'"

It's many years ago now but I seem to remember a Remembrance Day show when some wienie CBC newsthingie, doing the "chat with the vets" bit at a Legion somewhere out west asked one old duffer what it was like to have to leave his family to go to war, whine, snivel, blub-blub. You know the form.

The old guy promptly responded, "Are you kiddin'? I was never more glad to get away from that God-damned farm in the middle of nowhere in Saskatchewan and go off to Europe. I had the time of my God-damned life!"

Perplexed look on CBC interviewer as brain synapses started to short...

Stand easy, John!

(By the way, in that old photo up there, John is in a US Army uniform. Read his bio.)

I recently visited Belgium and toured the battlefields and memorials of the Great War. To see what young men like John Babcock endured no matter what capacity they served leaves me with a debt of gratitiude one cannot repay.

Rest in Peace

Thank you John, rest in peace.

Ave atque vale Mr.Babcock.

My parents drove for the CNIB. One of their rides was an old fellow named Charles who had the misfortune to lose both his eyes during a gas attack.

He lost his sight at age 18 but never lost his sense of humour. He had several sets of glass eyes, one of which had the Union Jack in the background. He wore those ones on special days. Memorably he wore them when my father picked him up for a Battle of the Atlantic Sunday service at our church. A marvelous man as I am sure Mr. Babcock was.

God bless these men.

We need them now more than ever.

May he awake to Glory, him and all those who went before him and those who still enrich the soil of Picardy and other far-off lands. Not to be forgot, ever.

God bless you John Babcock and all those like you. Thank you, from one who owes you so much and can repay you so little.

Rest in peace. I salute anyone who defends his country from foreign aggression, or who defends freedom in general.

However, I take issue with a number of points in the Globe's article on Mr. Babcock. The headline states: He was the last link to an era that defined Canada. And the story itself refers to "an era that in many ways marked Canada's emergence as a nation."

It is an exceedingly dangerous notion to think of a nation being defined by or emerging as a result of a war, or by any other sociological characteristic. A nation is properly "defined" only by its geographical area.

Wars result from the violation of the fundamental moral principle of civilized society, that no person has the right to initiate the use of force on any other person. If every person on earth were to understand and adhere to this principle, we would never have another war, and all people could live happy and productive lives.

The Globe's article quotes PM Stephen Harper saying of Mr. Babcock and his compatriots: "They paid dearly for the freedom that we and our children enjoy every day. Now they are all gone. However their voices and stories live on. They live on in our commitment to never forget, to cherish the values they fought for and to remember their sacrifices."

Sadly, the Prime Minister is forgetting about freedom, as his comments are 100% lip service. If freedom were respected, we wouldn't have phony "human rights" commissions that persecute people for their beliefs, we wouldn't have a Wheat Board that tramples on the right of western (but not eastern) farmers to sell their own property as they choose, and above all we wouldn't be giving 40-50% of our taxes to various levels of government every year, a fair percentage of which is wasted and a drain on the standard of living. And therefore we wouldn't need web sites like SDA.

We can pay these fellows back, by brining back the Democratic Canada that they fought for.
You don't even have to shoot.
WWI was a slice of Hell. Poison gas & all.
JMO

nv53 - you're being kind of a dick.

There was recently a two hour program about trench warfare on the Military Channel down here in the US.

A group of expert archaeologists, historians and student volunteers from Britain excavated a 50 meter sector of British trenches near Mons. The German trenches were parallel, about 100 meters distant. It was extremely well done and the narrator, a British historian, and his colleagues did an excellent job presenting this history.

It was in Mons at 10:55 AM that Pvt. George H. Price became the last Canadian, Commonwealth and British Empire Soldier killed before the Armistice took effect. Five minutes from peace, Mr. Price was hit by a single sniper's bullet and died a couple of minutes later.

I don't think people who weren't there can even comprehend the hell-on-earth that those men endured in the trenches. Even photos, artifacts and narratives from men who were there doesn't convey the full horrific reality to us today. Those who heard stories from fathers, grandfathers or other relatives can perhaps understand a bit better than most of us.

I even found myself feeling sorry for the German troops. They too were mostly ordinary everyday decent men who, like their Allied counterparts, didn't want a war, were serving without hatred, from a sense of patriotic necessity, but would have infinitely preferred to be at home with their loved ones.