MIDDLETON, N.S. — Pilot Officer Maurice Henley’s Mosquito B Mk XX made a sharp bank too low to the ground and crashed in Greenwood just before midnight April 18, 1944.
Henley, with the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserves, was the navigator and John E. Bowers, RCAF, was the pilot. They were both killed. It was a training accident.
Maurice Albert William Henley was just 21 years old, son of Thomas and Lily Harriet Henley of Guildford, Surrey, England. He’s buried at the Commonwealth War Graves, Old Holy Trinity Cemetery in Middleton – Section 2, Grave 14.
Molly Peppard placed a poppy on Henley’s headstone Nov. 5, the last one to be placed on the 27 headstones by Grade 9 students from Middleton Regional High School as they joined more than 9,000 Canadian students in a growing movement known as ‘No Stone Left Alone.’
Peppard said she was pleased be able to honour Maurice Henley. She recited his name and read the epitaph at the bottom of the stone: “He died that we might live, not today but always. We will remember you,” Peppard read.
NO STONE
Middleton resident John MacEachern got the MRHS students involved after hearing about ‘No Stone Left Alone’ on the news last year.
“I thought ‘what a great idea.’ This spring it popped into my mind and I got hold of the school principal and he talked to Laura (Cole) with their Canadian Studies Class, and they jumped at it,” MacEachern said. “That’s how it started. I went and met the class last week and figured what we were going to do and what it was all about and that was it.”
He gave the class a copy of Dianne Hankinson LeGard’s new book ‘The Lost Voices of WWII RAF/RCAF Greenwood’ that features information on each of the Commonwealth airmen who died in training exercises at the air force base during the Second World War.
“The class does have to take on a community project and this one kind of came up and it was perfect,” said Cole.
The class voted to take it on and each student selected a name and the corresponding headstone that they would visit during the cemetery.
“We prepared for it by practicing the names and they all got to look in this book that told them the history behind each of their soldiers so that they had a little bit more of a personal touch to it,” said Cole, “so it wasn’t just kind of an anonymous face or name or whatever – there was going to be some personal connection. They all got to look up their soldier, we watched a few videos on other ‘No Stone Left Alone’ projects, and we’re here now.”
REFLECTION
Giant oak trees stand over the graves, perhaps symbolic of the strength of brave airmen dead now for more than 75 years. Rev. Paul Jennings, Holy Trinity Anglican Church, and Chaplain Kent Greer, of 14 Wing Greenwood, officiated at the ceremony.
Back at school, the students will talk about it.
“We’ll do a reflection to talk about how they felt during the ceremony, things they might add to a ceremony like this if they got an opportunity to do it again, and how it made them feel in relation to the community and community links and building and that kind of thing,” Cole said. “I think they were quite pleased with it. They all did a really great job. I’m very proud of them of course.”
Cole said students took the project very seriously and were a bit anxious that morning about getting it right. They practiced the names and the acronyms before getting on the bus.
“When the bus pulled in they were very nervous. They saw the people, but I’m very proud of them. They pulled through and they did a great job,” said Cole. “And I think it was an impactful experience for them, especially in terms of it being different from Remembrance Day where they got to play an active role. I think that’s more impactful for them to be responsible for part of that ceremony and take ownership of it. It’s definitely something I’d like to do with future classes.”
COMMUNITY
“The course, Citizenship 9, the idea is to get them connected to their community, and I think it’s easy to go through the motions of a Remembrance Day ceremony without feeling connected to it,” she said. “So I think the takeaway for them is the connection they would have felt and the responsibility they would have felt and the fact they got to play a role in the ceremony. I think that’s really important to them.”
The mission of ‘No Stone Left Alone’ is to honour the sacrifice and service of Canada’s military by educating youth and placing poppies on the headstones of veterans every November -- “To honour, to educate, to remember.”
MacEachern said he believes that goal was met at the Nov. 5 ceremony.
“I was really pleased,” he said after the ceremony, noting the students were earnest and sincere. “The younger generation is going to remember this. We want them to appreciate what these men have gone through to save our freedom and our liberty. And they understand that.”
And it sounds like next year is already in the planning stages. “I’ve just asked the students and they all said yes,” MacEachern said.
“When Greenwood opened in 1942 with the Commonwealth training base, they sent the seasoned veterans over to train the young airmen,” said Hankinson LeGard. “Many of them had their Military Cross and they came over to train. These young people that came from Australia, New Zealand, England were probably the age of 18 to 24. There were 59 airplane crashes and 65 lives lost.”
Molly Peppard knows about Second World War heroes. Her late great-uncle Herb Peppard, a member of the famous First Special Service Force, is being honoured Nov. 8 at the Army Museum Halifax Citadel. Sgt. Peppard died in June at the age of 98. During the war he received both the US Silver Star and Bronze Star Medal for gallantry in the field. Molly Peppard said she will be going to Halifax to see the exhibit.
FOUNDATION
The ‘No Stone Left Alone Memorial Foundation’ is dedicated to engaging youth in honouring and remembering Canada’s veterans, according to informational material. “Our unique ceremony and educational programs provide youth with an authentic experience that creates knowledge, understanding, and appreciation of those who serve and of the sacrifice of Canada’s fallen,” it said.
GoOnline: https://www.nostoneleftalone.ca
