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Matthew McBride (left) with Mayor Malcolm Brodie.

Photo courtesy City of Richmond

Remembrance Day offers time for reflection

By Don Fennell

Published 11:21 PST, Mon November 9, 2020

Last Updated: 2:13 PDT, Wed May 12, 2021

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Matthew McBride was 17 years old when he set sail for an “adventure.”

He was three days shy of his 17th birthday, to be exact, when he joined the navy with which he eventually trained to become a diver.

“My teenage years were spent in the heart of the sea on a war ship,” he explains. “It’s when young people are just forming relationships and learning who they are. It’s the reason the bonds are so strong they can never be erased.”

It was at a similar age that many of his ancestors and their peers signed up for military service.

“They were boys,” says McBride, reflecting. “My great grandfather fought in the trenches in the First World War, my uncle and father both served in the Korean war, and my older brother was briefly deployed as a peace keeper in Vietnam. So, I grew up with the occasion. I don’t think I’ve ever missed a Remembrance Day service.”

It’s remembering the cost, the sacrifices made for the sake of peace, that he believes is the only thing that can prevent conflict from continuing.

This year, as he has been for the previous 14, McBride will be front and centre at Richmond’s civic Remembrance Day ceremony. He’s again organizing the local service which this year will be limited to only city council and a select few invitees at the cenotaph. It will be broadcast online starting at 10:30 a.m. on Nov. 11.

“People have given up so much in this pandemic, and I heard non-stop that they didn’t want to give up (Remembrance Day) too. In other words, do something, not nothing,” he says.

As an amateur historian who has had some of his works published, McBride continues to devote considerable time and effort into researching the lives and histories of soldiers. He is also inspired by his grandfather who wrote by hand his memories of serving in the infantry. McBride is proud to have inherited those memoirs, which give a detailed, week-by-week account of the First World War.

“After four decades of being an avid student of history, it has always crossed my mind how the human spirit and courage is limitless if you want it to be,” McBride says. “But that spirit and courage is only successful if it’s used for the benefit of humanity.”

He believes humans are all susceptible to the lure of power in all its manifestations, be it pride, lust or envy.

“We’re driven by power and when it becomes nations it can be lethal. It never survives, but it certainly causes damage along the way,” he says.

“The only way to prevent war so far, is to be so ready for it that nobody will take you on. That doesn’t mean being a war monger or being belligerent, but it means strength. It might occur in a strong economy, culture, or strong sense of self and these make it very difficult to attack successfully. (Strength) is so far the only deterrence we have.”