‘Wherever Canada fought, Sarnia was there’: New book on war stories

A new book telling the stories of 24 Sarnia-area residents who served in the military during conflicts overseas will be launched this month.

The book, Valor Remembered: Sarnia-Lambton War Stories, was researched and written by Tom Slater and Tom St. Amand, both retired teachers from Sarnia. The new book follows their work with the Sarnia War Remembrance Project.

More than 200 copies of Valor Remembered have been printed with support from Branch 62 of the Royal Canadian Legion and the Sarnia Historical Society. An official launch is set for Sept. 23, 1:30 pm to 2:30 pm at the legion hall on Front Street. That’s also where copies will be available to buy for $20.

“We just wanted to honor the men who served, and their families,” St. Amand said.

The remembrance project began several years ago when Slater was a teacher at St. Patrick’s Catholic high school and decided he would try to assemble a list of his students who died serving in the military.

His research to find the names took on a life of its own and eventually grew into the multi-volume Sarnia War Remembrance Project completed in 2021. The project recorded the city’s war dead, as well as the community’s contributions and experiences during conflicts from the Boer War to Afghanistan.

St. Amand helped with editing during the project and then worked with Slater to write several stories published locally about area residents who served.

They decided to expand a few of the stories and that led to the new book, which includes a history of the Sarnia cenotaph along with stories about 24 people from Sarnia and Lambton County.

Slater and St. Amand said families they were able to contact were shown stories about their ancestors before the book was published.

“They are very grateful we are perpetuating the stories and making sure the sacrifices are being remembered,” Slater said.

They also spoke with many families while researching the book.

“There were extremely supportive,” St. Amand said.

“They gave us photographs, information,” he said.

“It was emotional for them, too, to retell the stories and go through that pain again,” Slater said.

“They are very grateful we are perpetuating the stories and making sure the sacrifices are being remembered,” he said.

“It’s our privilege to do it, really,” St. Amand said.

The book is a not-for-profit venture and the authors aren’t receiving any of the proceeds from its sales, Slater said.

“We just want the stories to get out there,” so “people can read about these brave guys,” St. Amand said.

He described them as often young “ordinary people from ordinary homes who faced extraordinary circumstances, I think, heroically.”

Subjects of the stories include Sarnia’s John David Wright, a lieutenant in the Royal Canadian Engineers, who died while shielding a young woman from the explosion of a bomb during the Second World War in a London jazz club during a German air raid in 1941.

There’s also the story of Sarnia’s Neil Hann who survived serving during the First World War, only to die shortly after the fighting ended.

Besides the two world wars, the people behind the stories served in Korea and Afghanistan, including Will Cushley of Port Lambton and Brent Poland of Errol Village, both of whom died while serving in Afghanistan.

“Wherever Canada fought, Sarnia was there,” Slater said.