Youngsters attending elementary school in Mount Forest need look no further than the new mural in the school’s foyer to understand why it is named the Victoria Cross Public School.
The school was re-named the Victoria Cross Public School in 2005 in honour of two local men who were awarded the Victoria Cross, the highest military award for gallantry in the face of the enemy given to British and Commonwealth forces during the First World War.
Captain Frederick William Campbell was born in Mount Forest on June 15, 1867. A militia soldier, he won the Victoria Cross for his actions near Givenchy, France on his 48th birthday, dying a few days later.
Samuel Lewis Honey (Feb. 9, 1894 to Sept. 30, 1918) was born in Conn and was a soldier in the Canadian Expeditionary Force and posthumous recipient of the Victoria Cross.
Portraits of the two men, along with a depiction of the Victoria Cross, are front and center in the new mural. But the artwork, created by Cliff Smith, depicts much more than Canada’s military past, the Victoria Cross and the two local recipients. The present and future are also depicted.
The school foyer has been transformed into “veteran’s foyer” and, in addition to the mural, framed photos of 30 veterans are on display. Many are now deceased but all played a big part in the school what it is today.
The Legion declared 2005 the Year of the Veteran and, in collaboration with the Mount Forest Legion, each classroom in the newly named Victoria Cross Public School was dedicated to one or more of the numerous living war veterans in the area. The photos, now in the foyer, were hung in the classrooms and each veteran visited his or her classrooms regularly over the years, sharing stories with the students.
“We linked each classroom with one or two of our veterans but, over the years we have lost a lot of our veterans,” said teacher Lisa Weber. “Some of the families still connect with the students, some don’t, but we have very few living veterans now.”
“Because there are so few veterans left, the mural depicts not only the past but our present day veterans,” she continued, naming Mount Forest natives Sandy Nelson and Dan Stortz as examples of the men and women who serve as peacekeepers and/or took part in the Gulf War, Afghanistan and other conflicts.
“With the mural we are trying to represent men and women of the past and future as well as our present day veterans,” she said.
The school’s motto – “To you from failing hands we throw the torch, be yours to hold it high!’ – a line from John McCrae’s “In Flanders Fields” is also part of the mural.
Also depicted in the mural, along with the Victoria Cross winners and the medal itself, are a ground crew, the Canadian National Vimy Memorial, the WRENS, a soldier in the Navy, former Victoria Cross students reading about the war, local veteran Harold Ritchie and his wife Helen visiting with student Tyler McCracken many years ago, a soldier in the arm, army personnel in Afghanistan, the HMCS Montreal, Canadian Snow Birds and a parachute and yellow plane from Search and Rescue. There is also a Canadian flag and bright red poppies.
It was principal Karen Sims’ idea to commission the mural for the school’s foyer.
Weber, who has been involved with the Legion collaboration since in began in 2005, approached the Mount Forest Legion, also known as the Captain Fred Campbell VC Branch, to ask for a donation towards the cost of the mural. The Legion decided to pay the entire cost of the mural on the school’s behalf.
The mural was unveiled recently during a visit to the school by Martha Rogers, director of education with the Upper Grand District School Board. Also in attendance were superintendent Brent McDonald, North Wellington school board trustee Bruce Schieck, Ontario Command president of the Royal Canadian Legion Sharon McKeown, Ontario Command vice president Derek Moore, and artist Cliff Smith.
