Centennial Poppies

Honoring the Soldiers who fought and lost their lives and rest in our area has been one of the purposes of the Wartime Friends Association since it was founded: Ravenna is one of the Cemeteries and most of the young men who rest there are Canadians. From the very beginning of our activity to today, we multiplied our efforts to remember and honor these brave Soldiers.

Just recently, though, we realized we had the need to add a new way to honor the Fallen Soldiers. We called it “Centennial Poppies”.

Centennial Poppies” is meant to celebrate with 100th anniversary of a Canadian Fallen Soldier who rests in the Ravenna Commonwealth War Cemetery. After having reached out to his family (most often in Canada), we ask if they would like to send a message that we would read at the grave site. On the date, we pay homage to his grave site and lay Poppies by the headstone.

From July 2022 to the end of this year our Centennials are more than 20. We’ve already found their names and dates of birth. We are in touch with some of the families but we will try out our very best to reach out to all of them.

Being able to reach out to the families means indeed very much to us, It allows us to know so many aspects of the lives of our Centennials that we would otherwise never have known. Just one example can be one regarding Neville Drummond: at the very last minute his sister told us that he was born in 1923 and not in 1922. We promised her we will celebrate his 100th anniversary next year too!

We have the names of our 2023 Centennials. They are about 40. Research is already underway.

The energy to go on with this new program is given to us by the touching messages we receive from the families.

For us it is the best renewable energy source we can ever get!


Rober Lee Lester - August 23th 2023


Joseph Edgard Godin - April 12th 2023


John White Bell - April 5th 2023


George Worral - April 1st 2023


Hilton Morrison - March 6th 2023


Leonard Steiner - March 6th 2023 (105 years old)


Charles Ernest Gabites - February 22nd 2023


Orval C.E. Lockery - February 15th 2023


Maurice Perusse - February 2nd 2023


Samuel Cameron - January 29th 2023


Stanley J. Landry - January 22nd 2023


David Monk - January 9th 2023


Wilfred Cope - December 31st 2022


Wallace Duncan - December 21st 2022


William Loreno - December 5th 2022


Jean Chicoine - November 29th 2022


Tobias Zulauf - November 25th 2022


Eugene Morin - November 14th 2022


Rolland Laferté - November 3rd 2022


Harry Leland Hoganson - October 29th 2022


Jason Hunter - October 24th 2022


Alphonsus Profit - October 20th 2022


Arthur Robertson - October 12th 2022


Francis Leo Thibeau - October 5th 2022


Neil Campbell McLean - September 27th 2022


Peter Mousquash - September 26th 2022


James Outerbridge - September 5th 2022


Frank Penner - September 1st 2022


John Gebert - August 31st 2022


Harry Peterson - August 27th 2022


Richard Williamson - August 19th 2022


Neville Drummond - August 17th 2022


Vernon Cooper - August 17th 2022


Walter James Deller - July 22nd 2022


Lloyd Pulsifer - July 20th 2022


George Edward Owles - July 20th 2022


Leno Borsato - June 22nd 2022