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By LCol (Ret) J.C. Berezowski
The
Honourable Iona V. Campagnola, Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia, said
that the exceptional partnership of the Royal United Services Institute of
Vancouver Island and the University of Victoria will ensure that the military
experiences of veterans are preserved for future generations. She was at the
Victoria campus on Thursday, Jan. 20 to honour the founder of the original
UVic veterans’ oral history collection, History Professor Emeritus,
LCol Reginald Roy, PhD.
The ‘Lest We Forget’ Veterans Oral History initiative is of immense value not only for commemorating personal stories, but by the coming together of all those stories which help to explain ‘who we are as Canadians’ and the price that has been paid by our nation’s military to earn the profoundly fortunate society that is our home today, according to Her Honour.
The Project, initially offered as a special course last year, is now a regular part of UVic's history curriculum, thanks to a partnership with the Royal United Services Institute of Vancouver Island, a non-profit organization that includes serving and retired officers of the Canadian and Allied forces and the RCMP.
The two leading facilitators are Prof. David Zimmerman, University of Victoria and Col (Ret) John Eggenberger, Vice President of the RUSI of VI.
The Institute and university have teamed up to enable undergraduate students in the new "Veterans and Oral History" course to interview and archive the personal stories of veterans, including peacekeepers and veterans' families. The Institute is matching ten history students, currently in the new course, with veterans, according to their areas of interest. Their stories will be available in UVic's library as research material for other students and historians.
The original Oral History collection at UVIC was started by a longtime RUSI member, LCol Reginald Roy, history professor at the University of Victoria. LCol Reginald Roy served in the Cape Breton Highlanders and later the 5th Canadian Armoured Division through Italy, France, Belgium, Holland and Germany, in many posts including infantry platoon commander. He was later numbered among those who wrote the official history of the Second World War and today serves as an Honorary Colonel of 781 (Victoria) Communication Squadron. A valued commentator on military matters, Dr. Roy has written five chapters in books, 40 articles and many pamphlets and the biographies of two distinguished Lieutenant Governors of British Columbia, Major General George Pearkes,VC, DSO, MC, and Dr. David Lam,
As a professor at Victoria College and UVic from 1958 to 1988, Roy encouraged students to use oral history as a research tool. His earlier research and the oral histories collected by the new project now housed in UVic's McPherson Library special collections section will be named "The Reg Roy Military History Collection", declared the Lieutenant Governor.
"The veterans' record of oral history is vitally important, because it is their own story," said the Hon. Iona Campagnolo, at the special ceremony. She spoke before an audience of university staff, be-medalled veterans and students at UVic that afternoon. She said: "In some cases, they have now revealed what was once too painful to speak about in the years immediately following the conflicts in which they participated. We are indebted to every veteran who has contributed their personal memories to the history of our province and country that they have served with such distinction."
University of Victoria president David Turpin said: "The foundation that Professor Roy has laid in partnership with the university and the veterans in our community will allow this significant work to endure." The Royal United Services Institute of Vancouver Island is participating in fundraising for the course and assisting the UVic library in indexing the materials to make them publicly available. Eventually the Institute hopes to expand the project up Island to interview veterans living in Nanaimo, Courtenay, Comox and Campbell River.
At its annual general meeting on Mar. 9, RUSI VI approved the grant of $1,000.00
to the "Lest We Forget" Veterans Oral History Project at the University
of Victoria. Individual charitable donations may be made to UVic.
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