‘Faithful Unto Death’: The Brussels United Church Memorial Window

In 1924, the war memorial window at Brussels United Church illustrates the tremendous sacrifices made during the Great War. Located in the east wall of the church, sunlight still streams through the stained glass. It remains a fitting tribute to those who made the supreme sacrifice in the Great War.

On November 23, 1924, Rev. (Capt.) Edwards, of Listowel, unveiled a beautiful memorial window at Brussels Methodist Church on King St.

The window was dedicated to the seven youth of the congregation who made the supreme sacrifice in the Great War.

As Brussels did not have a cenotaph in 1924, the 3 p.m. service was crammed with parishioners and non-parishioners alike to pay their last respects to the boys from the Brussels church who had gone to war, never to return.

It was a surrogate funeral for friends and relatives who wanted to say farewell. For those in attendance, the names etched in glass were remembered as living flesh and blood.

The unveiling coincided with the church’s re-dedication. Having been partially destroyed by fire earlier in the year, the church had been resurrected from the ashes.

When Rev. (Capt.) Edwards, of Listowel, unveiled the memorial window, appropriately placed in the centre window of the east wall, he unveiled a window that offered hope through the theme of resurrection.

Thomas McClausland, famed stain glass window artist, designed the impressive window. The left glass panel bore the image of an angel offering the laurel wreath of life to an image of an armoured soldier in the right panel.

Emblazoned on the window is a Biblical verse taken from Revelations 2:10 “Be Thou faithful unto death and I will give Thee a Crown of Life.”

Within the left panel shield is the Torch of Remembrance surrounded by poppies; within the right panel shield is the Crown of Life and the Canadian Sword of Sacrifice. At the base of the two shields are inscribed the names of the seven fallen.

Their fates are as varied as their backgrounds, Private Melvin Bunston, a 27-year-old machinist, enlisted in the 15th battalion (Canadian Scottish) in 1914. He was the Brussels’ church’s first fatality when the 15th Battalion were caught in the German gas attack at 2nd Ypres on April 22, 1915. Initially, Bunston was reported missing on April 24 but was later confirmed killed.

Factory worker, Will Mayberry enlisted with the 71st battalion in November 1915 but transferred to an Imperial machine gun company soon after enlisting.

He had been wounded in March 1916 but sent back into the line.

On October 29, at the height of the Battle of Passchendaele, Sgt. Mayberry received gunshot wounds to the arm and legs. It was believed that he would recover but, on December 1, his sister received the tragic news that he succumbed to his wounds.

The Brussels congregation experienced their greatest losses in the battles of the Hundred Days in the summer and fall of 1918.

Charles Lott was a student at University of Toronto when he enlisted in June 1916. He was undergoing officers’ training when he joined the Royal Naval Air Service.

When it became the Royal Flying Corps, he had been commissioned as a pilot Lieutenant. In July 1918, Lieutenant Lott (22) was beginning an anti-submarine patrol in the Mediterranean when the “port float of his machine struck a large buoy: Lott’s seaplane flipped and Lott was ‘strangled in the wreckage and drowned.”

The Seaplane commander who wrote the letter spared his mother no detail of her son’s death. His commanding officer said that “very popular with his messmates: and would be missed”. He was buried in Malta with full military honours.

The ‘popular’ John Cleveland “Cleve” Denbow had a wide circle of friends in Brussels. When he attested in October 1915, Cleve Denbow ran a village barbershop but had an avid interest in automobiles and so listed his occupation as chauffeur when he enlisted.

By 1916, Cleve had seen his share of fighting having been shot in the shoulder in June. He recovered but on August 8, 1918, the day German Field Marshall Ludendorff called the “Black Day of the German Army” when the Canadians and Australians cracked open the Western Front.

Private Denbow was at the forefront of battle and was killed in the assault. The Brussels Post lamented the loss of a “smart, kindly natured youth, who had many friends.”                                        

A born leader and sportsman, Frank Stewart Gerry was a hardware clerk when he enlisted in the Perth County battalion in November 1915. He was immediately promoted to sergeant.

On a visit home in December, he was feted at the Town Hall and presented with “tokens of kindly interested and appreciation.” Before being posted overseas, Lieutenant Gerry married his sweetheart Miss Elsie Brown.

After serving at the Battalion’s anti-gas instructor in England, Lieut. Gerry was sent to France and transferred to the 4th Canadian Mounted Rifles.

In his last letter home, which appeared August 25, 1918, in an issue of the Post. Gerry thanked the Brussels Red Cross, Oddfellows and girls from the church who sent his boxes of cookies and other treats.

Although he mentioned rats as large as cats, he had few complaints and was “quite comfortable” writing from his dug out. The same Post issue that carried his letter carried the notice of his death at age 24.

Painter Lyle Gardner McCracken was still a teenager when he joined the 161st Huron battalion in January 1916. He joined the battalion’s machine gun section and was proficient at it. He retained his gunner status when he was transferred to France in late 1916.

He had survived the toughest battles of 1916 and 1917 and was an experienced veteran at the time of the Hundred Days.

With just weeks to go before the Armistice, “Dick” McCracken (21) was mortally wounded on August 31. Heavy artillery fire prevented him from being sent to an aid post in time in time to be saved and so bled out in the trench.

His platoon officer wrote his mother that he was “the pride of our section, with his splendid physique and his athletic courage.” In sum, he said, McCracken “does not know what fear is.”

Clarence Frederick Jackson was a reluctant warrior. He was conscripted into service in November 1917. Whatever reservations he had about the war had no impact on his sense of duty.

On September 1, 1918, his infantry battalion was tasked with assaulting a position on the Dury Road on September 1, 1918.

In the attack, Private Jackson (21) was killed instantly by enemy shrapnel. On his grave marker in France, his parents Frederick and Margaret Jackson, of Wingham, had inscribed “He Laid Down His Life for Us.”

The Brussels United Church community still tends the memorial window with great care. Church organist Glenda Morrison shows the window with pride to passing visitors.

In 2006, when it was discovered that it needed work, the congregation and local legion refurbished the window bringing it back to its former glory. A re-dedication service was held on June 29. The congregation was joined by several legion members. The window still overlooks the Maitland River and Huron County’s green and pleasant land.

When Rev. (Captain) Edwards, of Listowel, unveiled the church window, it was a fitting reminder, not so much to those present at the dedication, but to future generations of the great and terrible sacrifices made by the youth of a small church in a small Canadian town.

Their sacrifices and the sacrifices of so many others have bought us the peace that has allowed us to live so free in this pleasant green land.