Hundreds of men from Langley left between 1914 and 1918. About one in 10 never returned.
Their stories will be told by the upcoming Langley Centennial Museum exhibit, Sacrifice and Sorrow: Langley and the GreatWar of 1914-1918, which opens on April 9.
The opening date marks the 100th anniversary of the Battle of Vimy Ridge, a Canadian victory.
“I think it’s an interesting reflection on how the world has changed,” said Kobi Christian, the museum’s arts and heritagecurator. “A hundred years ago probably seems like a very long time ago, but it really wasn’t.”
The exhibit brings together items from the museum’s own collection, various other local museums and archives, and fromprivate collections. Uniforms, soldiers’ keepsakes, and tokens sent to the families of the fallen will be on display.
There are some grim items in the collection, including a hand-made club intended for trench fighting. It’s business end isfilled with lead for weight and studded with square nails.
Another item will be one of the so-called “dead man’s pennies.” Large copper medallions were sent to the families of thefallen. They had no rank markings.
After the war, things got back to “normal” for local residents, Christian said. But some scars lingered.
One of the stories the museum has heard is that of a veteran who lived in Willoughby after the war.
“People in the neighbourhood remember screaming coming from the house,” Christian said. He was suffering from shellshock, which today is usually diagnosed as post-traumatic stress disorder.
Some veterans became new farmers in Langley as part of the Soldier Settlement Act, which helped vets get small acreages.
