A Barrie woman, whose father fought in the battle of Dieppe, has arranged a special tribute for those who never came home.

Jayne Poolton-Turvey has spent the last year putting together an exhaustive research project on her father’s regiment, which she hopes to eventually turn into a book. Next week on the 75th anniversary of the battle, she will travel to the battlefield with other family members who are descendants of soldiers in the regiment, to pay tribute to them.

“We are bringing 150 pictures to the Dieppe cemetery,” Poolton-Turvey said. “They will be put on a stick and placed on each man’s grave along with a Canada flag.”

Her father, Pte.Jack. A. Poolton, fought at Blue Beach with the Royal Regiment of Canada. He survived the attack, was captured and taken as a prisoner of war.

“He scraped in the damp earth of an unfinished factory, to try and get moisture out of the ground, because he hadn’t had a drink in two days,” says Poolton-Turvey.

His story is not uncommon. Several other soldiers from Simcoe County were in the same group.

“My father was Private William Carson Olver,” says Douglas Olver, who lives in the area. “He was the first man to land on the beach. He was in the first boat that arrived.”

He says both the research project and the trip abroad will be meaningful for men he feels were never properly honoured. “For me it’s giving them some recognition. Canadians, they are very humble warriors for what they did.”

Both of Poolton-Turvey’s daughters will be by her side on the trip.
“I think when we stand on the beach it’s going to be kind of one of those moments that we will never forget,” says daughter Danielle Turvey-Morris. “It’s something we grew up hearing about a lot."

"It's important for us to remember," says Poolton-Turvey.  "So we don't make the same mistakes...and these men went through hell, and were never recognized."

The group leaves this weekend on their trip.