Middle West Pubnico, Nova Scotia
Since 2018, John and Crystal Grattan have been placing Canadian flags and hand-painted stones on Veterans’ graves and GPS marking them for easier future identification. This work is done alongside a local school and Legions at over 40 different cemeteries in Yarmouth County. The project has now grown to 1,700 Veterans’ graves. John and Crystal are now researching the Veterans in order to “put a face to a name” and have discovered 11 additional war dead from the area that will have their names added to the local cenotaph.
Petty Officer 2nd Class John Grattan (Retired), is a Veteran of the Royal Canadian Navy where he served for 23 years. Since 2018, he and his wife Crystal have been honouring Veterans’ graves by identifying them, placing Canadian flags and hand-painted stones on them, all while using the activity as an opportunity to teach the students in the Maple Grove School Community Pride Club the importance of commemoration. John volunteered alongside Crystal and these students while he shared stories from working in submarines and his family’s history of service. He also took the time to explain what recognizing the gravesites means to the service members’ families and to active and retired military members.
John used a GPS marking system to identify the flags’ positions, overlayed them on a cemetery map, and collected the flags with his wife after each Remembrance Day for reuse the following year.
Starting in 2020, John prepared maps for the cemeteries in advance, and researched the Veterans to continue to educate the students and others. When the flags and stones ran out in 2021, John and his wife paid for Canadian flag decals to be made that will serve as a more lasting recognition on the headstones.
As the tradition continued, the Grattans’ son (a Navy member), other members of the Navy and local Army Unit, and local residents joined the volunteers to place flags and replace some of the hand-painted stones. This increase in attendance saw people come to identify their relatives. Now, the Grattans are working with the Yarmouth County Legions to purchase the flags for the gravesites. Over the past four years, John has been consistently helping to achieve their goal of ensuring these Veterans are not forgotten and has helped to honour Veterans in a total of 24 cemeteries, as well as GPS marking 19 other cemeteries that are managed by the local Legion. John and Crystal Grattan have now identified and recorded 1,700 Veterans’ graves.
Using various sources, John and Crystal are now seeking out photographs and service information in order to “put a face to a name” and are presenting this information to the Pubnico Legion.
They also discovered 11 war dead from the West Pubnico area that are missing from the local cenotaph who will have their names added in the future.