Barrie, Ontario
Mr. Ford served as a gunner and a stretcher bearer with Lord Strathcona=s Horse in North Africa, Italy and the Netherlands during the Second World War. The dedication he has demonstrated to honouring fallen soldiers is exemplary. Mr. Ford has returned to Italy and the Netherlands on numerous occasions to visit the graves of his friends and other unknown soldiers. He led a delegation of Veterans to Barrie City Hall to alert politicians there were errors in some street names named for fallen soldiers. He has worked with a class in Barrie on a project they are undertaking called ABoys from Barrie,@ which produced a poster with the faces of all 63 individuals from Barrie killed in the Second World War. The coverage of this project led to Mr. Ford meeting with a Canadian living in Florida whose brother was killed in Italy during the Second World War. Mr. Ford buried this man=s brother the night he was killed. Most recently, Mr. Ford succeeded in connecting the relatives of a fallen soldier with the Dutch family in whose arms he died. Through the use of "Smart Board" technology, at the age of 85, Mr. Ford communicates electronically with students in the Netherlands, answering many of their questions.