Veterans remembered by St. Davids School students

For principal Carl Glauser and staff, Remembrance Day is an opportunity to bring the  St. Davids Public School community together for reflection, gratitude and meaningful learning. 

With several parents sitting at the back of the gymnasium Monday, the entire student body gathered to recognize veterans and those who gave their lives for their country. That included a focus on members of their own families—veterans of wars and peacekeeping missions throughout the years.

There were the usual trappings of an elementary school Remembrance Day assembly: the playing of The Last Post, a reading of In Flanders Field by the Grade 3 students, a choir singing Soldier’s Cry and the requisite two minutes of silence.

But what truly stood out as the morning’s highlight was a video created by Grade 7/ 8 teacher Bryce Honsinger and his students. The presentation compiled the names and images of the parents, grandparents and more distant ancestors of students and staff who served their country in the past. 

They learned that Capri and Asher Pratt’s grandmother Joy Osborn was a WREN - a member of the Women’s Royal Naval Service in the Second World War. The three Perng kids at the school, Eli, Winnie and Coco, shared that their great-grandfather Art VanDyk fought in the same war and passed away on Remembrance Day 12 years ago. 

They saw a photograph of Safaleen and Sangram Kaur Johal’s great-grandfather Havaldar Damman Singh Gill, who fought for the British Indian Army and was taken as a prisoner of war by the Japanese in Singapore. There was another of Charlotte Allan’s grandfather Robert Allan who served for the U.S. in the Korean War. 

The video showed Emerson Fournier’s grandfather Wayne Hill, a peacekeeper in Cyprus and the Congo, and First World War veteran Donald Fulford, Vivienne Atwood’s great-grandfather. And there was Michael Miele's great-grandfather Pasquale D’Antini, a fighter pilot for the Italian Air Force in the Second World War.

“He was a leader of his regiment, high up in the Italian Air Force,” Michael told The Local. “He did both day and night missions and shot down about 20 planes. My grandfather told me so many stories about him. He was proud of what he did to serve his country and to preserve freedom.”

D’Anitni’s life has inspired the Grade 8 student to take to the skies himself. Just 13, he has set his sights on earning his student pilot permit when he is old enough next year, though he can’t imagine having to fly a plane in battle like his great-grandfather did. 

Honsinger looks at the video exercise as a rich learning experience that ties together generations, allowing today's youth to understand the work that previous generations did to ensure Canada was able to remain a society where free speech and democracy continue to be important rights. 

“Sometimes these students will go through photo albums with their families and see a picture of someone in uniform,” Honsinger said Monday. “This sparks conversations and sends them on a learning mission to find out more. Then they reach out to their parents and grandparents and ask the important questions.”

While collecting the images for the video Honsinger often called in students of all grades to dig a little deeper. A few times he would research an ancestor’s history and share facts about the veteran that the family may not have even known.

Like his students, Honsinger learned about his own family’s military history through his maternal grandfather, Robert Shepherd, a Second World War veteran.

“When he passed, all of his papers came to me,” he recalled. “It was a time of discovery, of me finding out what he did.”

Honsinger shared details of Shephard’s story at the 2023 Remembrance Day assembly. This year it was the story of his wife Michelle’s grandfather, Second World War veteran Harold Barry, a member of the 12th Field Regiment stationed out of Guelph. 

Honsinger, a history specialist and long-time Scout leader, says Barry rarely spoke a word about his war-time experience to his family, but for some reason shared it with his granddaughter’s future husband. 

“I think he thought I would understand,” said Honsinger. “He eventually showed me where his wartime letters and other things were.” He pointed to the many artifacts of Barry’s that he had on display, including his discharge papers and a pair of clogs signed by Barry’s regiment and sent home to his wife Lil and his young son Doug.  

Barry’s unit participated in the D-Day invasion of Northern France. He drove a tank off a boat and onto shore to successfully push the German army back from France. Honsinger said Barry saw many horrifying things during the battle and only started sharing them with his family the last few years of his life. 

“He died when my daughter was a year old. I shared his story with them and now I’m sharing it with the students. They love hearing the stories because it’s coming from someone who actually experienced it. If we keep these stories alive in our hearts, the memories won’t fade.”