Penticton cenotaph, located next to the Penticton courthouse.
Image Credit: Robert Nield
November 06, 2023 - 1:00 PM
The Penticton cenotaph immortalizes the names of soldiers who were killed in the First and Second World Wars and a local historian has done some research to find the stories behind the names.
Robert Nield is presenting his research at the Penticton Museum's Brown Bag lecture series tomorrow, Nov. 7. He said he was curious about the names he sees on the memorial next to the Penticton courthouse.
“I enjoy a walk every morning and one of my favourite routes takes me past the cenotaph,” Nield said.
“It struck me that one of the inscriptions that you see on almost any cenotaph anywhere is "the name liveth for evermore” and I thought 'yeah the name does live forevermore because their name is in the stone or the bronze, but who were these guys?'”
He began investigating the lives behind the names on the cenotaph.
“I went to the archives... they do have a file on each of the names but the information was a little thin,” Nield said.
He took a systematic approach to uncovering the lives of the fallen soldiers.
“I looked at the national archives in London, online records and anything else I could find. I was just blown away by how much information there is out there for all these guys.”
So far, Nield has written two biographies on Bob Archer and Roy Atkinson and hopes to get through the other 120 names on the cenotaph.
“I’m afraid I’m hooked. I’m very happily hooked,” he said. “I don’t like the idea of giving up. My job is very much a work in progress.”
Nield’s talk on Tuesday will focus on the two soldiers he has completed research on, as well as a history of the Penticton cenotaph itself.
The cenotaph was initially built in 1920, but the memorial was moved in 1948.
Penticton installs banners for six of the fallen soldiers each year for Remembrance Day, but this year the museum is also creating plaques about their lives. Nield had researched one of the soldiers being honoured with a plaque and was able to help fill in the details of his life.
Find out more about Nield’s lecture here.
Learn about Penticton’s Remembrance Day banners here.
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