The Cemetery Project

History students in Professor Graham Broad’s Canada in the Second World War course (4210) completed an unusual field project this spring. The Cemetery Project brought students to Woodland Cemetery and Mount Pleasant Cemetery in London where students researched Canadians who died during the Second World War (usually in some aspect of home-front service.) The students returned to the actual tombstones to give biographical presentations of those buried at the site.

 The Commonwealth War Graves Commission maintains burial sites for 180 people in London who died in this area during both world wars, while on active service in Canada – including those who were killed during training exercises, in accidents etc.

“The project helped humanize the soldiers for the students. They began to understand that many soldiers were ordinary people doing their bit during the war,” says Dr. Broad. His own research work has recently resulted in the publication of a new book, A Small Price to Pay: Consumerism on the Canadian Home Front 1939-45.