Image Credit: Kent Simmonds / CFJC Today

By Dylana Kneeshaw

REMEMBRANCE DAY

Kamloops Museum and Archives hosting military history tours with local focus

Nov 1, 2024 | 6:00 PM

KAMLOOPS — It is Canadian military history, with a Kamloops lens. A series of tours hosted by the City’s Kamloops Museum and Archives over the next week and a half gives residents a chance to learn more about the local men and women who served.

“We try to talk a little bit about the first and second World Wars, this year we’re going to get into some of the modern stuff, some modern peacekeeping, and we’ll talk about Afghanistan as well,” says KMA Museum Educator Meghan Stewart, “So hopefully giving people a fairly broad overview, and hopefully putting some things into context.”

Tours include stories of the Rocky Mountain Rangers who fought at the Aleutian Islands off the coast of Alaska during the Second World War. Wartime labour from nurses, and women on the homefront.

“Elizabeth Winters, really interesting. She’s a nurse born in Kamloops in 1890, goes overseas and serves in Greece in one of the military hospitals there,” notes Stewart, “I think it’s just a very interesting facet of military history that we don’t often talk about is this labour of women, not just nurses but women on the home front as well.”

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And some of the more recent conflicts and peacekeeping operations Canada was involved in.

“I think the most exciting thing for me is being able to just talk about conflicts like the Medak Pocket, which happened during the Bosnian peacekeeping operations. It’s not something that is not super well known amongst the Canadian public but I think it’s something that really hits home for a lot of our military personnel,” adds Stewart.

It’s educational, but ultimately the hope is residents who take in a cenotaph tour will leave with something extra to think about on Remembrance Day.

“There definitely is a memorial aspect. We’ve got of course, Master Corporal Erin Doyle on our cenotaph, from Afghanistan,” notes Stewart, “I think it’s easy sometimes to lose sight of the fact that some of the conflicts are things that have happened in our lifetime. It’s not just about the First World War anymore.”

Cenotaph tours are free to attend, and registration is not required. The next tour dates are November 2, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9, starting at 12:10 p.m. Those who wish to take part are asked to meet at the Battle Street Cenotaph in Memorial Hill Park.