Museum to host three-event series
commemorating 100th anniversary of Battle of Vimy Ridge
Sat Mar 25th, 2017 11:30am
The Penticton Museum & Archives is presenting a three-part lecture series commemorating the 100th anniversary of the Battle of Vimy Ridge.
The events will feature local historians offering their perspective on this seminal battle of the First World War.
On April 5, Nancy Holmes will discuss how L.M. Montgomery, author of the Anne of Green Gables series and other books for young women, was affected by the First World War. She wrote a handful of war poems, including one that appeared in one of the Anne books. Holmes will explore how Montgomery gave us a sense of the terrible position of women at home, and critiqued the war and masculine narratives of glory. Holmes is an associate professor in the Creative Writing Dept. of Creative Studies at the University of BC Okanagan.
On April 11, Howard Hisdal will share his knowledge on an Okanagan battalion that played a crucial role in taking of Vimy Ridge. The second Canadian Mounted Rifles (BC Horse) from Okanagan Valley took the strongest part of the German position overlooking the village of Vimy in 90 minutes on April 9, 1917. They seized and held this objective with relatively low casualties. Was it just luck? Who were these British Columbians and what were their motivations? Vimy’s memory will be traced through the immediate post-war period to the present with the restoration of a 77-mm German trophy gun in Kelowna. Hisdal is chair of the History Department at Okanagan College.
On April 19, Keith Boehmer will discuss the Okanagan Military Museum’s preparations for their exhibit on WWI’s centennial. Boehmer is a historian at Kelowna’s Okanagan Military Museum. In preparation for their latest exhibit – 1917: Success in Battle – marking WWI’s centennial, Boehmer has been studying the Battle of Vimy Ridge, puzzling over the significance of events and the Memorial to Canadians a hundred years later.
This April, he will attend the commemorative events at the Vimy Memorial to mark the battle’s centennial and to honour the service of Canadians there in 1917. He expects to gain new insights and plans to use them in his presentation.
This project has been made possible in part by the Government of Canada.
From the Penticton Western News