Velika Kladusa, Bosnia; November 11, 2001 France Belanger and Eric Gosselin, Canadian civilians working with Task Force Bosnia - Herzegovina, lay a wreath on behalf of all Personnel Support Agency staff during the Remembrance Day ceremony at the Canadian camp.

The sad human cost of war was made clear to me and the 61 other CF members and their families who took part in this year’s PSP – UK Fund-sponsored bus tour to France and Belgium to remember those who fought in WWI.

This November tour of remembrance began on a foggy Saturday morning with a ceremony at the Beaumont-Hamel Newfoundland Memorial. The site – marked by the regimental emblem of the 1st Newfoundland Regiment – indicates where 800 Newfoundland soldiers were killed in a half-hour during the Battle of the Somme on July 1st, 1916.

Members of the Nova Scotia Highlanders and the Somme Battlefield Pipe Band performed as representatives from Canadian and French organizations laid wreaths. Following the service, we walked through the preserved battlefield and toured the visitor’s centre before attending a reception at the local town hall.

After visiting the Tyne-Cot Cemetery for a sunset ceremony and walking by the graves of unknown Commonwealth soldiers who had died after 1917, we joined hundreds of other visitors at the Menin Gate to hear the Last Post. Menin Gate is British memorial bearing the names of the 54,896 WWI casualties who have no known grave. This tradition – carried out by the Ypres Fire Brigade – honours one fallen soldier each evening. This evening, the Brigade paid tribute to a Nova Scotia Highlander.

The next day we visited the spectacular Canadian National Vimy Memorial commemorating the 3,600 Canadians among the 10,602 who lost their lives capturing of the ridge. Also carved on the walls of the limestone monument are the names of 11,285 Canadians killed in France who have no known grave.

For a group young Canadians, visiting Vimy Ridge was especially memorable. Through the efforts of Jacques Morel, Director of the Vimy site, and Lynne Clifford-Ward, PSP UK Coordinator and trip organizer, seven young people accompanied Canadian veterans in laying wreaths at the memorial ceremony: Colin Ward assisted Sergeant E. “Smokey” Smith, Victoria Cross Natasha Prentice assisted Wallace Smith, The Royal Canadian Legion Nicolas Prentice assisted Bill Neil, The National Council of Veteran Associations in Canada Rachel Irvine assisted Robert Cassels, Dominion President, The Army, Navy and Air Force Veterans in Canada Jordan Snodgrass assisted George Shake, President, Merchant Navy Prisoner of War Association, representing the Merchant Navy Coalition Jessica McCarron assisted Dale Lamoureau, The National Aboriginal Veterans Association of Canada Christina Burridge assisted Norma Fieldhouse, The Nursing Sisters’ Association of Canada.

Following the services at the Vimy Memorial, many of us moved onto the nearby Morroccan Monument for a short remembrance service.