Vancouver Rowing Club honours fallen members
Posted November 11, 2014 10:08 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – Members of the Vancouver Rowing Club are honouring their own that fought and died in the First World War.
Cameron Tompkins with the VRC Rugby Team says in the main hall of the Stanley Park club you’ll find a list of names on the wall “You usually see the clubs internationally and locally with a couple of dozen names and this one had just over a hundred names up there from the First World War and I just thought jeez, that is a lot of people.”
The rowing club lost 42 members in the war and 36 were wounded. Tompkins says one of the men who died was Thomas Percy Woodward who was killed in France at Vimy Ridge in 1917 at the age of 22.
“Thomas Percy Woodward’s father Reggie is actually in the BC Sports Hall of Fame for his contribution to rugby in the province and rugby in Canada. Reggie’s son Thomas was killed at Vimy Ridge.”
Tompkins is organizing a rugby tour of France and Belgium in September. “We are going to visit the memorial to our players and make sure they are remembered a hundred years later, visiting Vimy Ridge and learning a little bit about what happened there, also visiting Menin Gate and Ypres. We’ve got some club members names on that memorial.”
Tompkins adds a tremendous amount of research has gone into this tour, learning the stories of the men who died. “They were just like us I guess, and especially being members of the rugby club. I guess these guys were our founding members, just being reminded about who they were and what they did for us I guess.”
The Vancouver Rowing Club began in 1886 and rugby was added as a sport in 1908.
