WEYBURN – Weyburn resident Claire Kuhn was honoured that she has been chosen to represent War Mothers for the Royal Canadian Legion’s Remembrance Day ceremonies this year on Saturday, Nov. 11.
As the RCMP is celebrating its 150th year this year, and police officers are included in those who are honoured on Remembrance Day, Kuhn was selected as she has several relatives who both served in the military, and with the RCMP.
Her son Richard currently serves as a corporal at RCMP headquarters in Regina, and her late husband Ed was an RCMP officer for 26 years, serving in many locations, including in Weyburn.
Her father, Eugene Brunet, served in the Second World War, as did two of her brothers, Vincent and Linus, a brother-in-law, Marcel Fortier, and a number of other relatives. In addition, son Eugene served as a lieutenant with the Canadian Navy for 11 years, and a grandson, Gabriel, is currently serving in the Canadian Armed Forces, and is a captain with Military Intelligence in Ontario after graduating from the Royal Military College in 2017.
Her father was a Lance Sergeant with the Royal Canadian Engineers. He came home safely from war in June of 1946, but he died of a heart attack four months after coming home. The military decided that such a serious heart problem could not have developed in four months, and Claire’s mother was awarded the Memorial Cross, with the inscription, “Died in His Country’s Service”.
A Canadian flag draped his casket, and his grave bears a soldier’s headstone, plus his name is listed in the Book of Remembrance, kept in the Peace Tower in Ottawa. Kuhn has a copy of the page her father’s name is written on, and that page comes up for display on Dec. 11 every year.
Getting news about the war was often very stressful for the families, with the constant worry that telegrams bearing bad news would arrive at some point. Kuhn remembered that their Catholic parish had several masses scheduled each week, and said, “War gave everybody something to pray for.”
She recalled that during the war, both of her brothers were wounded in the fighting, and her mother received the dreaded telegrams from the military to advise her.
Both survived their wounds, although the first telegram to come said her brother Vincent was not expected to live.
He had a piece of shrapnel rip open his back and pin his lung to his chest. While he was recuperating in hospital in London, he met and fell in love with a young woman serving in the military, and they were married in March of 1945.
Linus was a member of the Black Watch, and was hit in the face by shrapnel, both above and below an eye. While the eye was damaged, he was still able to see.
He had signed up for the military when he was only 16, and after he came home on furlough before going overseas, his mother sent in his birth certificate and he ended up serving at a base in Victoria for three years until he was old enough to be sent overseas.
Fortunately, said Claire, he had sent a letter to his mother to tell her what the wounds entailed, so she didn’t have to worry so much when the telegram arrived.
One of her favourite memories is as an 11-year-old girl at the end of the war when everyone celebrated the end of the war, and her brothers came home.
At the time, her family lived in Ottawa, and a parade was organized in Lansdowne Park where the families could meet their returned relatives.
Her brother Linus had picked up a stray black-and-white puppy while boarding the ship in England, and when he arrived at home, his family saw the puppy’s head pop out of his tunic as he was hiding him. Linus asked the family not to say anything, as the puppy would then be put in quarantine.
In regard to her husband Ed in the RCMP, he first was posted to Vancouver Island for five years, then he was in Grise Fjord on Ellesmere Island, the most northerly post for the RCMP in Canada for two years.
“He only had mail twice a year, and they only had a ham radio,” said Claire. “As an RCMP wife, I received the ‘second man’ pin, in recognition of the service of women to the force.”
Ed and Claire were married in October of 1960, and they spent a year in Iqaluit, and then Fort Smith for three years, Spiritwood for three years, and one year in North Battleford. He served in Regina for three years, then spent seven years in Weyburn until his retirement in 1977.
Their son Richard is currently in Regina with the RCMP, and has served just over 25 years. His first posting was in Gull Lake, then he had a northern post in Black Lake before spending 10 years in Carlyle, and three years at Depot as an instructor.
Claire and her son Richard will both speak at the Remembrance Day service on Saturday, Nov. 11, and she will lay the first wreath on behalf of War Mothers.
Asked for her thoughts on the importance of Remembrance Day today, she said, “Our young people have to realize all the comforts they have today, all their freedoms, all their standard of living, are all attributed to the sacrifice our men and women made in war. They didn’t have women on the front lines, but they were in the military.”
She added that it’s a tragedy that after all of the sacrifices made in those wars, “there are still wars, like those deaths in Gaza, and in Ukraine – such a needless war.”
Today, Kuhn added, it’s up to the parents to tell their children about the price that was paid by so many men and women for their freedom and comforts.
“And so every Remembrance Day, I go to the cenotaph and I remember. How could I ever forget?”
