One of the newest markers in the cemetery marks the gravesite of James Stewart Simpson who died in 1926. How this marker came to be here at St. Luke’s is a bit of a story.
In November 2017, we received an e-mail to St. Luke’s Office addressed to “The Archivist” asking if we could take a picture of the marker for George and Harriet Stewart. Gord Young of Lakefield Heritage Research in Peterborough, Ontario, had found George and Harriet’s name in the database we had posted online at our website. The researchers at Lakefield Heritage Research knew that George and Harriet were not buried in the Lakefield-Peterborough area but it took a bit of sleuthing to find them. Gord commented that they knew that quite a few Lakefield-Peterborough folks, who are heavily connected to Canadian history, retired to the Victoria area.
This first request began a long e-mail conversation with Gord Young about the Stewart family and their connections to Peterborough and to St. Luke’s.
George Stewart was the son of pioneers of the Peterborough area, Thomas and Frances Stewart, who left Ireland in the 1822, and were some of the first settlers in the Peterborough area. George Stewart’s mother, Frances, wrote many letters home and after her death, her daughter first edited and published the letters in 1889, into a book called book “Our Forest Home”. It is still considered one of the most important accounts of settler life in 19th-century Canada and shows how friendship and communication were crucial to the well-being of immigrants in isolated locations.
George Stewart was a local Peterborough boy who made good. His patron was Sir Sandford Fleming. Fleming had married a Peterborough girl and George worked for Fleming conducting the opening survey of the CPR into present day Vancouver. George was then given the high honour of carrying out the original survey of Banff National Park. Next, with the nod from William Van Horne, President and CEO of the CPR, George became the first Superintendent of Banff National Park. He laid out Canmore as part of the extension of the park.
As we went back and forth with e-mails, we also sent Gord an obituary for James Stewart Simpson, George and Harriet Stewart's grandson, and commented that James was buried in the family plot but didn’t have a marker.
The obituary for James Stewart Simpson from page 5 of the Daily Colonist, Wednesday, May 12, 1926, reads: “The late J. Stewart Simpson, Captain Royal Air Force was educated at the Collegiate School here and at Bishop’s College, Lennoxville, Quebec. He enlisted as a trooper in the 2nd C.M.R. in 1914 at the age of seventeen. In 1915 he went overseas and in the Autumn of that year was sent to France, where he was wounded, thus necessitating his return to England. He was given a position in the Canadian Record Office and later was granted a commission in the Forestry Corps. A few months later he joined the Royal Air Force. After the completion of his training he won his wings while taking part in the defense against the raiding air forces. At the time of the armistice, Capt. Simpson lay in the Chatham Naval Hospital suffering from two broken legs, dislocated shoulder and seven injuries to the head. He had never recovered from the effect of these injuries to his nervous system. Simpson was the only son of Frances Edwardes of Cadboro Bay and the late Dr. Alfred Holmes Simpson.”
This where Gord got very interested! He decided to apply for a marker for James Stewart Simpson. First, he contacted the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. However, he was told that the Commonwealth War Graves Commission could only care for war dead. To qualify the death must occur between August 4, 1914 and August 31, 1921 for the First World War and between September 3, 1939 and December 31, 1947 for the Second World War. As James did not die until May 8, 1926, he did not qualify as a war dead. However, it was recommended that we apply to the Last Post Fund to obtain a marker his grave which we did.
Finally in December 2018 (almost a year after Gord started the process) a military marker, paid for by the Last Post Fund of Veterans Affairs, was placed on James Stewart Simpson’s grave. As Gord commented, "James finally got the proper war marker he should have received when he died.” We are grateful to Gord Young of Lakefield Heritage Research for his research and persistence, and to the Last Post Fund of Veterans Affairs for providing this marker so that James Stewart Simpson can finally be recognized for the price he paid for his war service.
[Compiled by Barb Prescott, on behalf of St. Luke's Cemetery Committee.]