May 30, 2023

Veterans Remembrance Program

Veterans Remembrance Program

During October and November, commemorative banners to honour local veterans who lost their lives in World War I and World War II, are displayed along the Island Highway 19A between McMillan and McVickers Streets. This program honours the sixty veterans whose names are listed on the Parksville Cenotaph.

This program was approved by Parksville Council in 2020 and through extensive research, we have gathered images and information about most of the veterans. We provide the heartwarming stories of the World War I and World War II veterans on our website. We hope you will take a few minutes to read these individual stories. Our thanks to researcher, Valda Stefani, who pursued the stories through archives worldwide, establishing relationships with military museums and other researchers and conducting interviews to ensure we were able to learn about as many veterans as possible.

As you will read in the stories, many of the local young men who enlisted, especially in World War I, had recently arrived from such places as the United Kingdom and Australia and were too young to have started families, adding to the challenge of finding photographs and details. We thank the many residents for sharing their personal stories and valuable information about family members, information not otherwise obtainable through archives or museums.

This process of gathering information and stories to personalize the lives of these veterans has been rewarding for the City. Our search for the missing details continues and there is a list on our website of those veterans; if you can help, contact 250 954-3073; communications@parksville.ca.

Copyright © City of Parksville
All Rights Reserved | Site by Bravenet Marketing Inc.
Legal Disclaimer/Privacy Statement