2015 National Memorial (Silver) Cross Mother –
Sheila Anderson

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National Memorial (Silver) Cross Mother Sheila Anderson.
(Photo: Royal Canadian Legion)

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(Photo: Royal Canadian Legion)

Mrs. Sheila Anderson lives in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories. She is the first National Memorial (Silver) Cross Mother from the Northwest Territories since the Legion began this tradition more than sixty years ago.

During the national Remembrance Day ceremony in Ottawa on November 11, 2015, she laid a wreath at the base of the National War Memorial on behalf of all mothers who have lost a child in military service to Canada.

She lost her eldest son, Corporal Jordan Anderson, when a roadside bomb killed six Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan, as well as an Afghan interpreter, in the Panjwaii district southwest of Kandahar City on July 4,2007.

Mrs. Anderson (née Cossar) was born and raised in Toronto, Ontario. She eventually moved to Ottawa where she worked in a treatment centre for emotionally disturbed adolescents (Ottawa Carleton Regional Residential Treatment Centre) before she got married in 1977 to a High School teacher named James Anderson. They moved to the Northwest Territories where they have spent the past 38 years. She currently works as the Manager, Territorial Courts with the Department of Justice, Government of the Northwest Territories. Her son, Corporal Anderson, was the oldest of four brothers, Benjamin, Mathew, and Samuel.

She took a three-and-a-half year hiatus from her career in the government to pursue a Bachelor of Arts in Public Administration (UNBC) and graduated in May 2015. This past year, she also combined her love of cycling to helping raise funds through the Boomer’s Legacy Ride from Comox to Victoria. Funds raised through this program are used to help Veterans with PTSD.

Mrs. Anderson has always actively participated in Legion Remembrance Day ceremonies in Inuvik, Saskatoon, and Prince George. She has also laid wreaths for the fallen/unknown soldiers in Yellowknife. Her husband is also an ordinary member of Canada’s northern most Royal Canadian Legion in Inuvik.

List of National Memorial (Silver) Cross Mothers

(Information courtesy of the Royal Canadian Legion, Canadian War Museum and families of the National Memorial (Silver) Cross Mothers)