Tuesday, November 9, 2010 Maple Ridge and Pitt Meadows residents pay tribute to our veterans and soldiers…
Pages A4, A21-23
ary Annivers 1985-2010
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Lest We Forget
Always count him in A familiar face at Maple Ridge Remembrance Day ceremonies, Eugene Lambright will not miss this year’s services.
Story and photos by Troy Landreville
tlandreville@mrtimes.com
After some hesitation, Eugene Lambright will, indeed, attend Thursday’s Remembrance Day ceremony in Maple Ridge. “I’ve been in the legion for 45 years, now and I haven’t missed a Remembrance Day service, yet,” said Lambright, who will celebrate his 90th birthday in early April. Initially, Lambright wasn’t sure if he would attend this year’s services. He told the TIMES last week that the usually inclement November weather would likely keep him
indoors once Nov. 11 rolls around. Since then, he’s changed his mind. “I’ve marched in the rain before,” he said. Every Remembrance Day, the memory of a brother, Ivan, and a nephew, Merle – both casualties of the Second World War – stir up strong emotions in Lambright, who recited the Act of Remembrance at last year’s ceremony in Maple Ridge. Asked what part of Remembrance Day is the most emotional part for him, Lambright didn’t hesitate. “The [moment of] silence,” he said. With crowds at Remembrance Day ceremonies larger than ever in Maple Ridge and across Canada, Lambright believes the message of sacrifice hasn’t been lost on the younger generations. “What we are trying to do is to inform the younger people who want to know what we went through,” he said. “That’s what we are trying to teach the children.” Lambright is a lifelong Maple Ridge resident. “My dad came out here in 1927 to get a job,” Lambright recalled. “I went to the school here in Hammond.” He joined the Canadian Armed Forces in March 1942 and served overseas with the Canadian 15th field artillery before being discharged after the war ended in ’45. “I was at the command post, where the guns are,” Lambright recalled. “My job was to take signals and give them to the officer and he in turn would pass the orders to the gunners. They were out of the way and we had megaphones and loudspeakers to contact the guns.” Lambright toured a year in England, and traversed France, Belgium, and Holland before landing in Germany just before the war ended. “We had an observer up with the infantry,” Lambright explained. “If the infantry was having trouble, this here observer, he would pass orders down to the guns. We took the orders and then put ’em on the guns.” Lambright and his regiment bore the force of fire, both friendly and from the Germans, he explained. “Those Germans, they had artillery, too, and their job was to knock us out,” he said. “We got blasted quite a few times.” continued on page A23…
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