One headstone at a time: behind a quest to document N.L. military gravesites

For retired major Michael Pretty, the Trail of the Caribou Research Group project is personal.

The group has spent a decade or more documentinggravesitesof Newfoundlanders who served, whether it was in the Royal Newfoundland Regiment, the Canadian army, the medical corps, or even in other countries' armies six at last count.

Pretty has direct connections that make the research resonate that much more.

"I had some family members from Newfoundland killed in the First World War. Forty others from England, with my last name, were killed in the First World War, 24 in the Second World War," Pretty told CBC'sOn The Go.

Pretty himselfspent 30 years in the military, and overseas deployments always included visits to fellow soldiers' graves wherever they were. But it was when he was walking through a cemetery in Newfoundland that he saw a headstone that referred to a man's son who never came home from the war.

"SoI said, 'I wonder how many of those are around?' Sowe're at about 700 of those now," he said.

"I found a headstone that said, 'To so-and-so that served in the Canadian army,' so I said, 'Hmmm, I wonder how many served in the Canadian army?'"

Those headstone memorials aren't under any other group's purview to look after, said Pretty.

"So for example, Commonwealth War Graves, they look after the war dead. The Last Post Fund, if you're a known veteran, when it was created, well, they look after veterans' graves or help families with veterans' funerals. But who maintains those?"

If we don't start where they're buried and looking after their final resting places, it's going to be lost.- Michael Pretty

Hence, theTrail of the Caribou group's goal to raise awareness of the accomplishments and the sacrifices of Newfoundlanders andLabradoriansin military conflicts and peacekeeping missions over the past century.

"When I went to school here, in Benoit's Cove, out on the west coast, nobody talked about Newfoundland history. I think we're at that point in time where if we don't start recording this stuff, and don't start recording where they're buried and looking after their final resting places, it's going to be lost."

Help needed for big project

Pretty knows it's a big job, with a list of soliderssome 13,000 names deep, a project that he knows he realistically might not see completed.

"It will never be finished," he said.

But many hands make light work, and the not-for-profit group, which started with a core of about 15 people and now has about 70,is recruiting volunteers to help.

"What I'd like to see is different groups around the province looking after areas in the province and doing research, towns approaching us on where we can help, where we can fundraise," he said.

Thursday night in St. John's, the group shared stories about some the soldiers they've learned about, with a fundraiser to come Nov. 15.

"There's all kinds of neat stories," he said.

The Trail of the Caribou group recently found, in England, the grave of Royal Newfoundland Regiment Pte. Walter Scammell of Change Islands, who died of influenza caught while on an officers' training course.

Scammell was training for the Royal Flying Corps, but died Nov. 11, 1918 the same day the armistice ending the First World War was signed.

In May, the groupreplaced the headstone of Edward Baldwin of Pouch Cove.

The headstone was also a memorial to Baldwin's three sons, who all died, fighting for three different militaries in three different First World War battles, and the town had a ceremony to mark the occasion.

"It was a community event, and for that hour and a half, those three brothers were remembered in that town," he said.

"So that's why it's important to me."

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