Through the Last Post Fund, Kyle Scott has erected 1,300 markers for veterans in cemeteries across Canada — including Victoria’s Ross Bay Cemetery
Slipping back into civilian life wasn’t easy after two tours in the war-torn country, considering all that he had seen and done over there.
He “spiralled” after getting home to Whitecourt, Alta., started drinking heavily and arguing with friends and family. “I just couldn’t shut it off — I couldn’t de-escalate,” said Scott. “I was always the guy who did his duty, the guy who always made light of things.A turning point came when he went to the Whitecourt cemetery, where he would visit the grave of Cole Bartsch, a friend who was one of five Canadians killed by a roadside bomb in Kandahar.
Through the Last Post Fund, which is administered by Veterans Affairs Canada and makes funds available for military grave markers for all veterans whose remains are in unmarked graves, Scott has been able to research soldiers and erect more than 1,300 markers in cemeteries across Canada over the past decade.
Veterans buried in the graveyard served in conflicts dating back to Confederation and even earlier, from the rebellion in India from 1857-1859 to the Fenian Raids in the 1860s and 1870s — incursions by a U.S.-based Irish republican organization on targets in Canada — and the First and Second World Wars.
Scott said Andersen and McLeod have done “much of the heavy lifting” in finding information through Find a Grave, a database of cemeteries and those buried. The site is owned by Ancestry, but is free to the public to search online. “It’s so satisfying to put the pieces of the puzzle together. Most of the time, the families are all gone, but every once in a while you will hear from a descendant, and they’re thrilled they’ve made the connection.”
After a week-long “decompression session” in Cypress before returning home, Scott and members of his regiment were called to Rideau Hall in Ottawa, where he received a Mention in Dispatches for actions in Helmand Province of Afghanistan. Scott hasn’t had a chance to visit Ross Bay, first due to the pandemic and lately because of work and family commitments, but he’s continuing the work in Victoria and in other cemeteries.
Like his father, Ken, before him, Kerry Mann uses a steady hand to sandblast the name, regiment, emblems and dates of service and death into the stone. “It’s work I’ve always enjoyed doing,” said Mann. “These are people that fought for our country and the things we believe it, so it’s an honour.” The markers are installed in cities and small towns in every corner of the province — 500 in one Vancouver cemetery alone last year.
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