The County of Simcoe has unveiled a new way to recognize soldiers from WWI.
The new virtual memorial pays tribute to the fallen men and women who have a local connection by immortalizing them.
“There are individual war memorials, but there was never one for all of Simcoe County.”
Archivist Ellen Miller created the digital honour roll called ‘Simcoe County Remembers’ that launched this week.
The public can learn more about 1,006 local men and women who lost their lives during the First World War by keying in a name, service number or by scrolling through the index.
The archives contain information such as where each soldier was born and where they died, plus what their occupation was and which units they served.
Miller began sifting through endless documents, military records, and various databases back in 2007 to gather all the material necessary for the memorial.
“When I started this I had no idea that it was going to grow to be this big,” says Miller.
Steve Glover is a historian with the Barrie branch of the Royal Canadian Legion. He plans to rely on the virtual memorial for his research and lectures of the Great War.
“I’m able to get detailed information about Simcoe County because that is something that has been missing in the past,” says Glover.
Pictures will soon be included of the fallen soldiers. Miller hopes this will help to remind people of the human cost of war.
“Wars are about people. They were fighting for themselves and their buddies, and I think sometimes we forget about that.”
It’s estimated that more than 8-thousand men and women from across Simcoe County served during the First World War.
The archive staff hopes the public can help add more of those names and pictures to the honour roll by contacting them with any additional information.
