The recent passing of Canada’s last WWI veteran, John Babcock at age 109, brought Christopher Shannon, Headmaster at Lower Canada College in Montreal, Quebec to discuss the implications of this loss with his grade 11 students. ” With the passing, our direct human link to the Great War also slipped away, never to be reclaimed” writes Mr. Shannon in his reflection posted on the Dialogue Journal for Private School Educators. “Will we risk becoming what some analysts call a society without memory?
Read Losing Touch With Canada’s Modern Historical Achievements
About John Babcock (July 23, 1900 – February 18, 2010)
John Henry Foster “Jack” Babcock was, at age 109, was the last known surviving veteran of the Canadian military to have served in the first world war. First attempting to join the army at age 15, Babcock was turned down and sent to work in Halifax until he was placed in the Young Soldiers Battalion in August 1917. Babcock was then transferred to Britain, where he continued his training until the end of the war.
He never did fight, and therefore didn’t feel he deserved a state funeral, but as Mr. Shannon identifies, “he surely would have liked to see all Canadians learn more and discuss our proud history with interest.”
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