Guyana on Sunday joined countries around the world in honouring the men and women who lost their lives in the two World Wars, as President Irfaan Ali led the annual Remembrance Day commemoration and laid a wreath at the War Memorial Cenotaph in Georgetown.
The ceremony, held at the junction of Main and Church Streets, brought together members of the Guyana Defence Force, other uniformed services, government officials, members of the diplomatic corps and representatives of the public to pay tribute to those who made the ultimate sacrifice in the cause of peace and freedom.
The observance also provided an opportunity to remember Guyanese who served in the conflicts, many of whom left their homes in what was then British Guiana to join military forces overseas.
Among the recognised veterans of the First World War was Gershom Onesimus Browne, who was born in Bagotville, West Bank Demerara. He enlisted in the British West Indies Regiment at the age of 17 after giving his age as 18. Browne served in North Africa and Palestine, attained the rank of sergeant and became Guyana’s last known surviving First World War veteran. He died in 2000 at the age of 102.
Another Guyanese who served during the First World War was Lionel Fitzherbert Turpin, born in Georgetown. He enlisted in the British Army in 1915 and served with the King’s Royal Rifle Corps in France during the campaigns of 1916, 1917 and 1918.
Guyanese also made important contributions during the Second World War. Among them was Cy Grant, born in Beterverwagting, East Coast Demerara, who joined the Royal Air Force in 1941 and served as a navigator with a Lancaster bomber crew. His aircraft was shot down over the Netherlands in 1943, and he was captured and imprisoned in Stalag Luft III until his liberation in 1945.
E.R. Braithwaite, the Guyanese educator, diplomat and author of To Sir, With Love, also served in the Royal Air Force during the Second World War.
Other documented veterans included Hector Bunyan, who enlisted in 1943, trained as an artilleryman and served with the British Guiana Contingent of the South Caribbean Forces; Benjamin Durante, Cecil Cunha, Edgar Mittleholzer and Joseph Rodney.
Cunha’s wartime contribution included overseeing the Government wireless telegraph station at Mackenzie, where he monitored telegrams during the war to prevent sensitive information from reaching enemy hands.
These men represent only some of the Guyanese whose service formed part of the country’s contribution to the Allied war effort.
The Georgetown Cenotaph, unveiled in 1923, stands as the country’s principal memorial to those who died in the First World War. Its four faces bear the words Devotion, Humanity, Fortitude and Sacrifice, reflecting the values associated with those being remembered.
Remembrance Sunday is observed on the second Sunday of November, while Armistice Day is marked annually on November 11. The date commemorates the armistice signed in 1918 that brought fighting on the Western Front of the First World War to an end at the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month.
The ceremony traditionally includes a military parade, the sounding of the Last Post, two minutes of silence, the Reveille and the laying of wreaths.
As Guyana honours those who served and those who never returned, the annual observance serves as a reminder of the human cost of war and the responsibility of succeeding generations to preserve peace, freedom and human dignity.
