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Canadian Vets Recall WWI Action Here

A Canadian Veterans at Derek Walcott Square.

Wreaths Laid To Those Killed.

A Canadian Veterans at Derek Walcott Square.
A Canadian Veterans at Derek Walcott Square.

THE St. Lucia Ex- Service Legion were hosts last Monday to members of the Canadian Ex-Services Legion.

Leading the group was the Legion Dominion President, Mr. Tom Eagles. He was accompanied by 58 Canadian ex-servicemen and women and their spouses from several Canadian Regiments.

The group was on a fourteen day 4th Annual Canadian Caribbean Cruise holiday on the Celebrity Eclipse of Celebrity Cruises. Welcoming the group were Mr. Haynes Cyril, President of the Legion and Mr. Reginald Cherubin, past president, both surviving St. Lucian servicemen of the Second World War.

Soon after landing, the group, accompanied by the Mayor of Castries, Mrs Shirley Lewis, laid wreaths and said prayers at the War Memorial on the Derek Walcott Square.

Military connections between Canada and St. Lucia have existed since the First World War. St. Lucians served in the Canadian Air Force during the Second World War.

A tour to Soufriere had been arranged including a visit to the Sulphur Springs followed by the laying of wreaths at the memorial shrine to Pilot Officer Desmond Du Boulay on the Du Boulay’s Soufriere Estate. The pilot was killed in action in Germany during the Second World War.

Wreath-laying at du Boulay Shrine
Wreath-laying at du Boulay Shrine

After lunch at the restaurant in the restored sugar mill on Soufriere Estate the group returned to Castries and called on Governor General Dame Pearlette Louisy at Government House. Gifts were exchanged and congratulations and cheers were extended to Dame Pearlette who is a graduate of the Canadian Laval University in Quebec.

Canadian Servicemen served in St. Lucia during the First World War. In March and April, 1915 detachments of the Royal Canadian Artillery and the Canadian Garrison Artillery landed in St. Lucia, a force of nine officers and 105 other ranks.

The contingent of officers and men manned the artillery installed to protect the Castries harbour, the Castries coaling station and the Royal Navy Station in the southern Caribbean. This force, at the Armistice in 1918, consisted of 14 officers and 204 other ranks of the Royal Canadian Artillery, two officers and 28 other ranks of the Royal Canadian Engineers, and one officer and 8 other ranks of the Canadian Army Medical Corps.

 Visit to Government House
Visit to Government House

The Lord Commissioners of the British Admiralty and the Army Council expressed their appreciation of the service of the Canadian troops employed on behalf of His Majesty’s ships and the mercantile marine for the sense of security given to Port Castries during the war.

The tour ended with a quick visit to the Commonwealth War Graves Cemetery at the Choc Cemetery.

Wreaths were laid in memory of the five Canadians buried there.

The touring group planned to visit three other Caribbean islands which are members of the Canadian Ex-Service League.

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