Nanaimo’s Korean War veterans and supporters will honour those who served and died in the conflict with a remembrance ceremony to be held Saturday (July 27) at 11 a.m.
Earlier this year the Canadian government passed Bill S-213, which established July 27 – the day hostilities in that conflict ended with the signing of the Korean Armistice Agreement – as the National Day of Remembrance in Honour of Veterans of the Korean War.
2013 marks the 60th anniversary of the end of fighting in the war, which began on June 25, 1950, ended July 27, 1953 and claimed the lives of 516 Canadians.
Thousands more Canadian troops continued to serve in Korea until 1957. The remembrance ceremony will be held and the Royal Canadian Legion Branch 256 at the corner of Bowen and East Wellington road.
“It will be at the little cenotaph at the legion,” said Doug Bamford, vice president of Korean Veterans Association Unit 61. “We’ll have local politicians as guests. We have some veterans showing up – a lot of veterans I hope. We’ll be laying wreaths and there will be a bugler and piper.”
Bamford could not say for certain how many Korean War veterans are living in Nanaimo, but said the average age for veterans of the conflict is 83.
For more information about the Korean War, please visit the Veterans Affairs Canada website at www.veterans.gc.ca.