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New banners honour Pitt Meadows veterans

Family members appreciate display for Remembrance Day service
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Curtis Lind, Pitt Meadows sign maintenance worker, puts up banners of local war veterans for Remembrance Day ceremonies. (Neil Corbett/THE NEWS)

Four new veterans have been honoured with their images on street banners in Pitt Meadows as Remembrance Day approaches.

Sepia-coloured banners are used for those who have passed away, explained city sign maintenance worker Curtis Lind, as he rode his lift to put up the new banners last week. Coloured banners have been used for those still with us. They are installed around city hall and Spirit Square, and there are now 20 veterans on banners.

Family members came to see images of their loved ones, in their military uniforms, posted above city streets. All four were second world war veterans, from the same extended family.

One new banner shows Ronald Sharpe, 22, who was killed in action during his service in the navy. Beside him is his cousin Morse Douglas McMyn, who also served in the Navy.

Brothers Ron and Doug McMyn watched their dad’s banner go up. They explained the two men on those banners had been close.

“It’s a good memorial, and it’s nice to see the city honour them,” said Ron.

He was named for ‘Ronnie,’ who suffered a fatal injury when a hatch closed in rough seas, striking his head.

He explained that his father Morse served on a corvette, a small warship, that was escorting convoys on the Atlantic. His job was to operate the ASDIC sonar system, to detect German submarines.

Another banner shows two more cousins in the family: Theodore ‘Ted’ Leland Sharpe who was in the air force, and his cousin George James ‘Jackie’ Sharpe, who had been an army motorcycle courier in Holland. The latter’s daughter Susan Sharpe was there for the installation.

Delivering messages by motorcycle made the despatch riders a high value target for the enemy, and it was dangerous work. ‘Jackie’ came back to his unit once to find his comrades had all been killed by an enemy shell. They were called heroes, and that’s what it says on Jackie’s banner.

Ted and Jackie came home and operated a successful local business – Fraser River Pile Driving.

The other 16 veterans honoured on banners are: C. (Charles) B. Armstrong,Robert James (Jimmy) Barnes, Jack Booth, Jim Boyd, Warren Byrnell, Percy Devereaux, Theordore Enge, Harley Edmondson, Frank Granger, Fred Jervis, Claude Parenteau, John Robertson, Wilbert Dewey Rose Isabel Sharpe, Spenser Skelton and Hilton Smith.


 

@NeilCorbett18
ncorbett@mapleridgenews.com

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Brothers Doug and Ron McMyn went to Pitt Meadows City Hall to see banners raised of their father Morse Douglas McMyn and Ronald Sharpe, a pair of veterans and cousins.


Neil Corbett

About the Author: Neil Corbett

I have been a journalist for more than 30 years, the past decade with the Maple Ridge-Pitt Meadows News.
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