Operation Picture Me: In Memory of Canada’s War Dead
Researching family history can take you down many paths and I started following a path because of one picture that was given to me my by grandmother. It was a group-wedding picture, of her sister’s wedding party. As she read out the names of her sisters, she stopped when she told me the name of her brother, Anthony Smith.
It turns out the Anthony was Killed in Action during World War 1 and this was the only picture of Tony. About the same time I received the picture I discovered a web site called the Canadian Virtual War Memorial. It lists the names of all the men and women who lost their lives while serving in the Canadian military and each person listed has their own file. One aspect of the site is that you can send in a picture to attach to the their files. It was then, that I sent in Tony’s picture to complete his file. That way distant relatives in the UK or else where around the world can see what Tony looked like.
I began looking through other’s on-line files and soon discovered that hundred, thousands and maybe even ten of thousands of men and women do not have a picture on file. I learnt after a quick check that a dozen or so Victoria Cross recipients did not have a picture on file and I began a quest to find their pictures. From there I started to look for pictures of the five members of the Canadian military who were murdered after the “Great Escape” from a German POW camp.
I them started a project trying to get High School student to research their local Cenotaphs and find pictures for the names listed there. The project is called Operation Picture Me. So far we have been able to find pictures of over 1,600 men who lost their lives. I figure there may be as many as 80,000 that do not have a picture on file. So my quest continues as we find one picture at a time, until everyone listed, has a picture on file.
If any member of your family lost their lives while serving in the Canadian military you may want to send in a picture to the Canadian Virtual War Memorial. That way you will know that their names and their faces will be remembered for years to come.
Here is a link to the Canadian Virtual War Memorial web site.
http://www.vac-acc.gc.ca/remembers/sub.cfm?source=collections/virtualmem
