From veterans' banners along Tillsonburg streets to a suitcase filled with wartime letters, local historian Frank Moore is preserving the personal stories behind the names we remember
Every Remembrance Day, we pause to honour those who served, and those who never came home.
But behind every name is a life. A family. A story.
In Tillsonburg, Frank Moore of the Tillsonburg Military History Club has made it his mission to help keep those stories alive. This year, 140 veterans' banners have lined Quarter Town Line, each bearing the photograph and name of someone who served. The club has also worked with the Tillsonburg Post to share the personal histories behind those banners.
Moore says there's a simple reason for doing that.
For Moore, that commitment to remembering extends far beyond the banners.
In 2013, an old suitcase containing wartime letters and artifacts came into his possession. It had been preserved by the parents of Flight Officer Alexander Purves McCracken, a 21-year-old Canadian navigator killed when his Halifax bomber was shot down on July 25th, 1943.
Of the seven men aboard, six died. One survived and became a prisoner of war.
What began with that suitcase became years of research, as Moore worked to uncover the lives of the men aboard the aircraft and connect with their families.
But McCracken's story held particular meaning for him. Like Moore, the young navigator had worked for the Royal Bank before the war.
And Moore couldn't help wondering what kind of life he might have lived.
That determination has helped bring forgotten details back into the light, including the experiences of the crew's sole survivor, Flight Officer Alexander Joseph Sochowski. And it reminds us that Remembrance Day isn't only about the sacrifices recorded in history books.
It's about the people behind them. The young men and women who had families, friendships, careers and dreams. Those who came home, and those who never had the chance.
Because the stories we carry aren't always carried in our memories.
Sometimes, they're carried in a suitcase.
