By Jason MacGregor, Features Contributor
Dalhousie alumni have made some truly amazing accomplishments. Some have gone on to become CEOs of international companies, some have become highly respected politicians, some have made major breakthroughs in medicine, and some have become famous celebrities. As a school, we’re proud of their accomplishments, and we quickly remind others that they are Dal graduates. But one current Dal student believes we’re forgetting some of our bravest students. In the weeks leading up to Remembrance Day, he noticed something was missing.
“I planted a poppy on every plaque in the (Hicks) Building,” says Peter Patterson. “But those plaques only cover the soldiers who died in the First World War and one who died in Korea, and I think that is not a true reflection of the soldiers who died from this school.”
Nowhere on campus is there a plaque that remembers or even acknowledges the large number of Dal students who served or died during the Second World War. Just to find proof that students took part in the war effort is a task that includes searching through the school archives on the fifth floor of the Killam Memorial Library.
The names are there. Thousands of them.
In a manila folder full of brown, thin, crispy papers are the carefully scribed and typewritten Alumni News letters from that time period. The top papers are all those boring notes on alumni who recently got married or got a new job. But the tone quickly changes. The lists of marriages are soon replaced with lists of Dal alumni who were on active service, wounded, taken prisoner, missing or killed in action. In one letter from March 1943, about 1,200 names of Dalhousie students are listed.
The list describes what most students had studied, the years they were at Dal and their position in the military. But for some, it also describes their fate. One man, who had studied science and engineering, was reported missing after he was shot down during a night flight into enemy territory. For official purposes, he was presumed dead in April 1943.
Patterson, who holds a Masters of Business Administration from Dalhousie, returned to university this year to upgrade his GPA to up his chances of getting into medical school. But this topic is personal to him because he is also an army reservist.
“I joined because of that outdated notion of queen and country,” says Patterson in the HMCS Wardroom at the University of King’s College. “It’s a belief that I should stand up to defend our parliamentary democracy should it be threatened.”
Ironically, a portrait of a much younger Queen Elizabeth II watches us from behind the bar. Scattered throughout the room are black and white pictures of Canadian warships from the Second World War. King’s College still honours its role from that era when the navy used the school as a “stone frigate,” an academy for naval officers.
At the end of each November, officers and seamen from the HMCS Sackville parade in front of the Arts and Academic Building and attend a church service in respect of King’s College’s war efforts so many decades ago.
Dalhousie, too, made a large contribution to the war effort on campus. In the archives are examples of how the Women’s Auxiliary Army Corps used Shirreff Hall as a residence in the summer of 1942. Like King’s College, an officer-training course was set up at Dal for a short period and the National Research Council worked on “several important problems vital to the security of the Empire.”
“There’s little recognition asked from a soldier,” says Patterson. “Just some acknowledgement of what we’re prepared to do. For these (Second World War) soldiers, they paid the ultimate sacrifice for our freedoms.”
Traditionally, the Dalhousie Student Union lays a wreath in memory of Dalhousie students who served or were killed in action.
“We go to the ceremony at Grand Parade,” says Shannon Zimmerman, President of the DSU. “We also make a donation to the Poppy Fund. It depends on how many donations come in and we then add an additional amount on top of that.”
The plaques in the Hicks Building for the First World War soldiers were bought by several of the graduate classes that the soldiers belonged to. Since then, most grad classes have put their money toward different things such as building sidewalks and planting trees.
While anything memorializing Dal alumni since the First World War would need to go through the university administration, says Zimmerman, she’s not opposed to the idea and to spreading awareness around campus.
Just how much emotion is still behind Remembrance Day? Has it become a mechanical ritual of our culture?
Several of the poppies that Patterson placed over the First World War plaques were snatched, insulting the reason he placed them there.
“I’m not comfortable being in uniform around campus,” he says. “Some of it may have to do with ignorance – just not being aware.”
Dal students and alumni involved with the military have served in Afghanistan, are there now, or will eventually go over. For the first time since the Korean War, soldiers are wholly putting their lives in danger. Not many people realize the students in their classes may have served overseas.
“At the end of (the Second World War) we said, ‘never again,’” says Chris Maxwell of the Halifax Peace Coalition. “It’s been 65 years and we are still not doing ‘never again.’ I go and memorialize (Second World War) vets and others but I have hesitations about people serving now.”
Patterson, who has served within different trades in the military since 1987, says he would go overseas. He’s currently working toward becoming a doctor so he can serve in that capacity.
“Some (joined) because they believed their country is always right,” says Maxwell. “Some people (joined) because they wanted to help people, like the rest of us, which is noble.”
A soldier himself, Patterson says he still gets a little embarrassed when people thank him in public while in uniform. However, he still enjoys the odd free coffee, he adds with a smile.
There is a whole gap of Dalhousie wartime history missing from campus, including thousands of alumni names.
“So why do we bother remembering in November?” Patterson asks. “Some of those students could have been liberal hippies who got called up to fight in the war … They had dreams and aspirations like everybody at Dal today.”
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