And the leaves of the tree…

Memorial Avenue sign toppers.

Memorial Avenue sign topper, Shelbourne Street, Victoria, BC. Placed In commemoration of Great War Memorial trees rededicated 2018.
(P. Ferguson image, October 2018)

…were for the healing of the nations
Revelations XXII.2

Today we gather our thoughts before the day ahead. Tomorrow…what will we feel…what is to be…?

Still – this day, is a chance for gathering our thoughts before the morrow…it is a chance to pause previous to the emotions of the current ending. I often speak of regeneration in these places of conflict…finding peace in this former chaos, finding ourselves amongst those who have been…and remain. Knowing too that a bit more than twenty years after this peace, the chaos returns…Lucifer again amongst the tumult of all survivor’s memories and their children’s new war…a second world war, does not pass this day unrecognized.

In search of the Great War’s peace I have wondered what might be found to add to these clatterings of mine? Today the words were found…thanks to another….one soldier, one mother who chose her son’s inscription in search of peace from this chaos. Today one image was found…lest we forget…here at home.

Laura Hoare chose the biblical inscription that leads our day. It is the focus for our interests after the Great War…healing…rebuilding…memorialization…hope…closure. Laura’s son, Captain Richard Lennard Hoare (12th London Regiment “The Rangers”) died  on the first day of the Somme 1 July 1916 and is buried at Gommecourt British Cemetery No. 2, Hebuterne, France…and though I have not been…I will go…one day…not this day…soon…its about healing.


About The Author

pferguson
Paul has worked with the Paradigm Motion Picture Company since 2009 as producer, historian and research specialist. Paul first met Casey and Ian WIlliams of Paradigm in April 2007 at Ieper (Ypres), Belgium when ceremonies were being held for the re-dedication of the Vimy Memorial, France. Paul's sensitivity to film was developed at an early age seeing his first films at RCAF Zweibrucken, Germany and in Sardinia. Paul returned to Canada in 1967 and was further amazed by David Lean's "Lawrence of Arabia" and "Bridge on the River Kwai". Film captivated Paul and with time he became increasingly interested in storytelling, content development, character, direction, cinematography and soundtracks. At the University of Victoria, Paul studied and compared Japanese and Australian film and became interested in Australian film maker Peter Weir and his film "Gallipoli" (1981). Paul was entranced when he learned Weir had visited the beaches, ridges and ravines of the peninsula. The film "Gallipoli" alone led Paul on many journeys to sites of conflict in England, France, Belgium, Holland, Germany, Malta, Hawaii, Gallipoli and Salonika. It was, however, when Paul watched documentary filmmaker Ken Burns, "The Civil War", that Paul understood how his own experience and insight could be effective and perhaps influential in film-making. Combining his knowledge of Museums and Archives, exhibitions and idea strategies with his film interests would be a natural progression. Paul thinks like a film-maker. His passion for history and storytelling brings to Paradigm an eye (and ear) to the keen and sensitive interests of; content development, the understanding of successful and relational use of collections, imagery and voice. Like Paul's favorite actor, Peter O'Toole, he believes in the adage “To deepen not broaden.” While on this path Paul always remembers his grandmother whose father did not return from the Great War and how his loss shaped her life and how her experience continues to guide him.

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