Names of forgotten soldiers added to Cenotaph in Sarnia

Forgotten Sarnia-area soldiers being honoured 26 forgotten soldiers with ties to Sarnia-Lambton are being added to Sarnia's Veterans Park Cenotaph. CTV London's Bryan Bicknell has more.

SARNIA, Ont. -- The cenotaph in Sarnia has 26 new inscriptions on it.

It follows the discovery of 26 fallen soldiers whose ultimate sacrifice fell through the cracks over time.

It began in 2012 when retired high school teacher and history buff Tom Slater discovered Sarnia had no record of soldiers with local connections who died in war.

He dug deeper and found a total of 26 names of soldiers who gave their lives fighting for Canada, but whose stories were forgotten over time.

“Some of them were in a scenario where they came here and worked here for a number of years but had no family here. They signed up here. They went off to war. And when they didn't come home there was nobody here to remember that person.”

The Sarnia Historical Society then became involved. The organization raised $20,000 and had the names of the forgotten soldiers added to the cenotaph.

The new additions were revealed on this Remembrance Day, and posters telling each of their stories were on display at the local Royal Canadian Legion for the public to learn more about them.

Society president Ron Realesmith says it’s about giving soldiers their due once and for all.

“I just thought that this would have been done and so to find these 26 names of folks that are not on the cenotaph I was, I was blown away, and so right away we wanted to rectify that.”