KISBEY - Kisbey is proud to honour its veterans.
On Oct. 16, Craig Bird from the South East Military Museum and John Voture from the Carlyle branch of the Royal Canadian Legion came to Kisbey to hang the memorial banners. Voture lives in Kisbey and works for Nankivell Trucking out of Kisbey.
Nankivell Trucking generously the use of its scissor lift so that banners could be placed for all to see in honour of those who served.
There are four banners hanging in Kisbey, but over 40 young men from Kisbey and the Pheasant Rump First Nation were lost during the two World Wars.
The legion hopes to honour others in the future years and invites anyone interested in sponsoring a banner to contact the legion.
The four banners honour the following men:
•Rifleman Stan Johnston left the family farm in the Maitland area to enlist in the Regina Rifles in 1942. Johnston was 19 years old when he was killed on D-Day on June 6, 1944. He is buried in France.
•Lance Cpl. Percey Dennington Kisbey was the son of Richard Kisbey, and this is whom the town was named after. Percy was attending the University of Saskatchewan and studying to be a lawyer when he joined the Canadian Expeditionary Force in 1915. He was killed at Sanctuary Wood on June 2, 1916, and is commemorated on the Menin Gate in Ypres, Belgium, with 55,000 others whose bodies were never found. His archives are housed at the Kisbey Museum.
•Priv. Harold Barker grew up south of Kisbey on his family’s homestead. He was a teacher when he enlisted in the army in 1916. Barker was killed in battle for Hill 70 on Aug. 15, 1917, and he is commemorated on the Vimy Memorial with 11,000 others whose remains were never found.
•Cpl. Fred Hawman was raised on a farm between Kisbey and Arcola. In 1941, he enlisted into the army and was killed in action during the liberation of Europe on March 6, 1945. Hawman is buried in the Netherlands.
These four veterans along with thousands of others fought for a country's freedom.
