
Nova Scotia monument honours eight brothers who fought in Second World War
Global News
The Harvie brothers from Gormanville, N.S., all served in Europe — six returned home, while two died and are buried overseas.
A new memorial recently dedicated in a small Nova Scotia community honours eight brothers whose story of service in the Second World War had been all but lost to local memory.
The Harvie brothers from Gormanville, N.S., all served in Europe — six returned home, while two died and are buried overseas.
A black granite monument is now inscribed with the names and photos of Avard, Burrell, Edmund, Ernest, Ervin, Garnet, Marven and Victor Harvie. It stands in a small memorial park just up the road from their hometown, beside the Royal Canadian Legion branch in Noel, N.S.
The number eight is inscribed prominently in the middle of the memorial.
The monument in the town about 70 kilometres north of Halifax is the brainchild of legion president Jeff Thurber, who only became aware of the Harvie brothers’ remarkable story around the time of his branch’s Remembrance Day service last year. That was when he happened to see them mentioned in a memorial book kept by the legion.
Thurber was fascinated by his find but said it became apparent to him that over the years the brothers’ story had “just been lost in the dark.” Garnet, the last of the surviving brothers, died in 2000.
“There wasn’t even as much as a plaque to commemorate them,” he said in a recent interview. “I’m sure everyone in the area was aware of them at the time they served, but then of course (their story) just disappeared.”
Victor Harvie, 83, whose father Ernest served with the North Nova Scotia Highlanders during the war, said in an interview that he was only aware of scant details about his family’s wartime service.