Every year on Nov. 11, generations gather at the local cenotaph to remember those who gave their lives in the First and Second World Wars.
In a time where civilians are far removed from overseas conflict and Western casualty numbers remain low, the atrocities of WWI and WWII become increasingly more unfathomable to younger generations. With fewer veterans remaining to tell their stories, the personal connection to history is slowly being lost, replaced by ambitious documentaries, Hollywood films and sterile classroom textbooks.
A new exhibit currently on display at the Mount Forest Museum and Archives seeks to address this loss of community history by chronicling the village’s war experience – both overseas and at home. What makes it especially unique is nearly everything on display comes from personal collections hidden away in the attics and closets of Wellington North.
“We wanted to do something that somehow reflected Mount Forest in the war years, starting with the first and going right to the second and [included] the home front as well,” said museum director Kate Rowley. “It is a collaboration between collections that are out in the community as well as the collection that’s here in the archives.”
Rowley curated the exhibit alongside fellow director Marlene Markle, who says once they put feelers out, the response just snowballed.
“We talked to a couple of people that we knew would be good places to search out stuff, then names would come up or word gets out that you’re looking … and one thing just leads to another,” Markle said with a laugh.
The exhibit features artifacts, memorabilia, Newspaper articles, photographs and documentation from both wars. The women say emphasis was on creating ties to the community. As best they could Rowley says they tried to follow the stories, start to finish, of local people’s war experience to give visitors a well-rounded impression of the time period and what it meant to go to war, or have a loved one go.
One of the most interesting aspects of the display is a number of letters and postcards sent back home from local boys overseas.
Contrary to popular belief, letters sent from the front were relatively mild in nature. There are no gory details or much talk of the action at all. Most simply inquire about the farm and family or comment on the weather. Markle believes this is because the mail was censored.
“Post cards and Christmas greetings say, from ‘somewhere in France’ or ‘somewhere in Germany’ – that would be the return address,” she says. “You just couldn’t give your whereabouts away otherwise the enemy would know where the troops were.”
Rowley said letters were often delivered with pages missing or entire sentences blacked out.
“Mothers would write back and say, ‘some of your letter was not there, but we gather you’re well.’ So you can tell from the correspondence that letters were being censored. Someone would give up a little too much information and they would take it out,” she says.
When asked if there were any love letters, Markle laughs. “They wrote their grandmothers and mothers a lot. Because in the First World War, obviously they were younger and a lot of them were unattached when they went over.”
She said people might also be hesitant to share something so intimate.
“I think maybe in a larger community it would be easier to release them. You’d know the result of various unions. But I’m sure they’ll resurface.”
Personalized postcards were also created out of photographs taken overseas. But they didn’t depict battle scenes. One sent to a family in Mount Forest shows a group of troops doing laundry.
“There was a lot of sitting around waiting and a lot of tedious days. [This] is just one of those postcards where it’s like, ‘nothing dramatic happened, we did our laundry today – that’s mine there, that’s me mom and we’re all okay,’” Rowley injects.
Others make for a haunting read. One in particular from a boy still at home, expresses his eagerness to join his brother at the front.
“It just aches of the younger brother wanting to join up and be with his big brother. He’s just itching to go – he’s in training and he just can’t wait to go over,” says Rowley. “When you read it, your heart kind of breaks because you know what’s in store, but he sure didn’t – he just wanted the same adventure.”
Some postcards are quite humorous, whether that was the intent or not. Rowley points to one whose photo is a multi-story building.
“Both brothers were gassed in France during the war. The building in this postcard was a military convalescent hospital in Sussex and there’s a pen ‘x’ by the window. We believe that ‘x’ marks the room where George recuperated,” Rowley says. “That’s what you would do if you stayed in a hotel, but in his case, it’s a convalescence.”
Another interesting item donated to the exhibit is a small chest made by Leonard McIntosh when he returned home after WWII. Rowley and Markle believe after he constructed the chest and placed the items inside, it remained locked until after his death.
His family eventually opened it to find it contained photos, maps, medals, money, souvenirs, a harmonica and pocket watch, women’s jewelry and his army papers – most of which are now part of the museum exhibit.
“I don’t think Leonard is extraordinary in the fact that he never looked at it or talked about it,” Rowley says. “These guys went to the Legion for years but you don’t hear them talking about it through their families … so it’s kind of symbolic of that. They went over, they had these huge experiences, but then they came back and just kind of got on with the next thing and one wonders how easy that actually was.”
The letters and photos are just the tip of the iceberg. Rowley and Markle say people have been coming in to see the exhibit and just get lost in it.
Despite most Remembrance Day activities having wrapped up for the year, the exhibit will remain open – most likely until next November.
“It wasn’t just about Remembrance Day, even though we wanted it up for that. This is a centennial of WWI and each year it was significant to the war, therefore we can certainly keep it up into the next year,” says Rowley.
They hope as more people come to see the exhibit, it will prompt more donations from local collections organizers have yet to discover.
“As people come in they will say, ‘you know I have a photograph you might be interested in,’” she says. “It’s just a nice story of how the war altered things here, even in small ways.”
The Mount Forest Museum and Archives is open every Wednesday from 1 to 5pm or by appointment. For more information call 519-323-1649.
