Essex County veterans have been memorialized inside the Comber and District Historical Society Museum. “We had pictures of veterans all over the museum, and I thought it would be so nice to be able to put a face to some of those names,” President Mark McKinlay told CTV News Friday. “I took them all home, and I scanned each one of them.” Using artificial intelligence, McKinlay was able to restore the images and backgrounds and print them to fit a 4X6 frame. The result is the ‘Wall of Heroes’ at the front door of the sprawling museum on Highway 77, which is in an old schoolhouse built in 1894. “I’ve had many people call me and send me messages on (social media) telling me that they have pictures that they want to send. So, it’s really started something,” McKinlay said. He is now planning to do specific research on each veteran featured on the wall. “Some of them, they don’t even look old enough to go into the war. And they were at that time in their lives (that) they really wanted to serve their country,” McKinlay said. “Unlike today, I think you would find a lot of people that wouldn’t be that willing to fight for their country.” The museum is open from Victoria Day through Thanksgiving but McKinlay posts many of the veteran images on his social media account. “They were really dedicated, and they were willing to give up their lives for, their country,” McKinlay said. “It really shows what kind of people that they actually were.”
