Simcoe Legion marks 100 years helping veterans

Representatives from six Norfolk County branches of the Royal Canadian Legion, and local dignitaries, were invited to a flag-raising ceremony to mark the Legion’s centennial on July 17. 

J.P. Antonacci

Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

The centennial of the Royal Canadian Legion, celebrated in Ottawa on Friday, July 17, holds special meaning in Simcoe, home to the only Legion branch in Haldimand-Norfolk that was founded in the same year as the national veterans’ organization.

“But our history goes back much longer than that,” said James Christison, president of Legion Branch 79 in Simcoe.

Soldiers coming home to Norfolk County from the Great War already realized they and their comrades would need help after the guns fell silent.

“As the war was still raging, they had the foresight to realize there was a need for huge support for veterans returning,” Christison said.

Those soldiers founded the Simcoe branch of the Great War Veterans’ Association in 1917 - one of only a dozen such associations in all of Canada at the time.

The group merged with the local British Empire Service League chapter and joined the newly incorporated Royal Canadian Legion in 1926 to create “one strong voice” for veterans, Christison said.

Norfolk’s five other Legion branches were formed soon after, and their work to encourage Remembrance while supporting veterans and their families continues today.

That work has changed from funding hearing aids and mobility devices for older adult veterans to helping soldiers, back from more recent deployments like the war in Afghanistan, avoid ending up on the street.

“We’re supporting individuals that need first and last months’ rent paid,” Christison said. “Our service officers assisted 26 individuals last month alone.”

Providing financial aid and housing support is a return to basics for an organization whose first beneficiaries were young men who returned injured and traumatized from the Western Front.

“That’s been the mission since day one - to give a voice and support veterans,” Christison said.

SURGE IN MEMBERSHIP

Simcoe’s Legion has signed up 130 new members and counting this year, part of a nationwide surge that has seen the Royal Canadian Legion’s ranks swell by more than 100,000.

That spike is no doubt helped by the group waiving membership fees during its centennial year, but Christison said the “huge intake of public interest” at all Norfolk branches also coincides with a push to give Legions a higher profile.

“Fantastic support” from new members allowed the Simcoe branch to extend patio hours, host more live music acts, and offer trivia nights on top of the usual schedule of card games and dinners, Christison said.

The branch’s banquet hall, which seats 300, and the 250-seat club room are often booked for concerts, wedding receptions and celebrations of life.

“The hall is used by the community, and that is fantastic,” Christison said. “That’s what it’s there for. Built by veterans, supported by veterans.”

The Legion was packed to the rafters for a celebratory barbecue on Friday evening. Earlier that morning members from all six Norfolk branches gathered at town hall in Simcoe for a flag-raising ceremony to mark the centennial.

Next up is a “centenary banquet” in Simcoe on Nov. 21 to commemorate the branch getting its charter on Nov. 20, 1926.

The centenary evening at the legion hall will feature a catered dinner and live music, plus a presentation from Dr. Dean Oliver, former director of research and exhibitions at the Canadian War Museum and curator of the Canadian Museum of History, both in Ottawa.

“We’re pulling out all the stops, because how often do you get to turn 100?” Christison said. Tickets to the banquet are free for veterans and will go on sale to the general public in late August.

 J.P. Antonacci is a Local Journalism Initiative Reporter based at the Hamilton Spectator. The initiative is funded by the Government of Canada.