Cenotaph at Inkerman United Church 
Cenotaph at Van Camp Cemetery 
Private Shaver remembered on family gravestone
Another week close to home, featuring the many war memorials in Eastern Ontario.
Two Methodist (now United) churches, 6 km apart, in what is now North Dundas Township in the United Counties of Stormont, Dundas and Glengarry. Two small communities that remembered their young men who served and died in WW1 with cenotaphs similar in size and style. A plinth is topped with a rough granite slab with the years 1914-1918, on which is a polished granite carved with the names, on which is a stele decorated with a wreath of maple leaves. Both were likely erected by the same local monuments company.
Inkerman United Church is at 11526 County Rd 3, at the north end of the hamlet. The cenotaph stands to the east of the church. It is dedicated to, “Our heroes who fell in the Great War. They saw with wider vision, the Empire and its need, and came with swift decision to do the utmost deed.” Seven names are recorded on the front and side (and one more added for WW2):
- Arthur Endersby, 154th Battn CEF, died 1917
- William Meade, 154th Battn CEF, died 1918
- Charlie Robinson, 154th Battn CEF, died 1917
- J. Harold Robinson, 28th Battn CEF, died 1918
- Horace Milne, 154th Battn CEF, died 1917
- Reginald Mundy, 38th Battn CEF, died 1917
- Thomas Henry Poole, 2nd Battn CEF, died 1918
Van Camp Cemetery and the former United Church is at 11035 Levere Rd, east of Development Rd. The church is now a residence and the cenotaph is in front of it (quite a lawn ornament). The cemetery is to the east. The cenotaph is “dedicated to the memory of our fallen heroes who fell in the Great War … they died that freedom might live.” Five names are listed:
- Clifford Shaver, 154th Batt CEF, Oct 31, 1917, age 21 yrs
- Frank D. Valentine, 154th Batt CEF, June 26, 1917, age 26 yrs
- Donald M. Hope, 27th Batt CEF, Dec 29, 1918, age 27 yrs
- Fred Baulch, 154th Batt CEF, Dec 4, 1918, age 20 yrs
- Arthur S. Hollands, 87th Batt CEF, Nov 23, 1916, age 22 yrs.
Nearby, Shaver’s name is also on the back of a family gravestone: “Pte Clifford Shaver, killed in action at Passchendaele, Belgium, Oct 31, 1917, age 21 yrs. Greater love hath no man than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.”
Read some of Shaver’s letters on Vancouver Island University’s Canadian Letters and Images Project.
Remembering a missing family member on a grave close to home is a phenomenon we have seen in Beechwood Cemetery (Gallaher and Helmer) and in Ebenezer Cemetery.
Great War 100 Reads 