The men and women who went off to war and lost their lives left a lot behind. Not just their families and friends, but also their hopes and goals and dreams for the future. Bucket lists, never to be fulfilled.
This year, Jim Humphrey from was able to scratch another item off his list, and that meant going to France and paying his respects to some of the people who made that possible. Humphrey, a veteran himself, not only witnessed the Remembrance Day ceremony at Juno Beach, he was asked to participate.
Juno Beach is where Canadian forces landed on a five-mile section of Normandy coastline and carried out one of the most successful D-Day operations on June 6, 1944.
“It was pretty humbling. It’s a once in a lifetime opportunity,” said Humphrey by phone from France. “I thought I would just go and watch. I came here to visit and pay my tribute to the war dead. And the ceremonies are just an add-on.”
Humphrey spent close to 30 years in the Royal Canadian Navy, first in Halifax and then closer to home, back on the west coast. When he retired, he was a senior non-commission member, chief petty officer first class. This was his second time visiting France during Remembrance Day; last year he visited Dieppe.
Last week, he arrived at Juno Beach a couple days ahead of the Nov. 11 ceremony. Humphrey visited the beach, the memorials and the museum, where he struck up a conversation with one of the young Canadians working there. They happened to be joined by Juno Beach Centre director Nathalie Worthington and when she learned about Humphrey’s military experience, she asked if he would join her in laying a wreath during the ceremony.
“I felt very privileged to be asked,” he said.
The service was the same as any one might attend in Canada, although it was held mid-afternoon, rather than 11 a.m., so as to not conflict with the local French Remembrance Day ceremony in the nearby town. The ceremony also does not have a fixed marching in of the veterans, simply because it’s not always known just how many Canadians (if any) will be able to attend in any given year.
However, this year there were some Canadian military representatives including two military police officers from the embassy in Paris as well as a naval lieutenant, also from the Paris embassy. The flag bearers this year were all French veterans.
Nov. 11 is not the only day of Remembrance in France — Nov. 1, the Day of the Dead, is actually the nationwide day for ceremonies there, and so Humphrey attended the events at Vimy Ridge at the beginning of the month. He said he was taken aback by the thousands of people who came out that day. Always sure to wear his uniform when visiting military cemeteries or services, Humphrey had some people ask to take his photo when they learned he was Canadian and he handed out tiny Canadian flag pins he brought from the federal constituency office in Duncan.
While a smaller affair at Juno Beach in terms of attendance, Humphrey said he was just as moved.
“It’s hard to put it into words,” he said. “I’ve lost friends while I was in the Canadian armed forces and I knew lots of them when we were in a few different war zones ourselves, like when I was in the Persian Gulf. It’s just one way that I feel that I had to be able to give back. To say thank you to comrades that I didn’t know.”
As the number of living Second World War veterans shrinks each year, the necessity of Remembrance Day only increases, according to Humphrey.
“It’s very important to make sure that the thousands and thousands of people who gave their lives for freedom, our people, our citizens don’t ever lose sight of that,” he said.
Before leaving Juno Beach and travelling on to Flanders Fields for a few days, Humphrey ran into a couple who were visiting from Victoria. Seeing Juno Beach had been on their bucket list too.
“No matter how far away from home you are, you always seem to run into people that are just around the corner from you,” said Humphrey. “For different people, they do it for different reasons… Now I can take this off my ‘I want to do list’ and put it in my ‘I’ve done that’ list.”
