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T ucked in a back cor-ner of Victoria’sChrist Church Cathe-
dral, an aging, beautifullycarved oak cross is affixedto the wall.
“Ici repose le LieutenantJ.D. Pemberton,” reads theinscription, “décédé le 21août 1917.”
There are a couple ofminor errors there. The “J”should be an “F” and Fred-erick Despard Pembertonwas a captain, not a lieu-tenant, when shot downover France in the FirstWorld War.
That’s easily forgivable,particularly considering thecourage and humanityshown by the Frenchmanwho planted the cross at thegrave of the 24-year-old Vic-toria resident whose deathhe witnessed.
And now, almost a cen-tury later, the families ofthe two men have recon-nected. It seems this story,which culminated in agrieving father bringing thecross home from France,has stayed alive on two con-tinents.
Despard Pembertoncame from what would bedescribed as a “good” fam-ily.
The eldest son of F.B. andMab Pemberton, he wasborn in 1893, the same yearhis grandfather, JosephDespard Pemberton, B.C.’sfirst surveyor general, died.
Educated at Mt. Tolmie’sUniversity School (the pre-cursor to St. Michaels Uni-versity School), the wartook him to Royal MilitaryCollege in Kingston, Ont. Itwas while there that heducked down to Dayton,Ohio, learning to fly at theWilbur Wright School ofInstruction. Commissionedas an officer in the 50thRegiment of the GordonHighlanders, it wasn’t longafter shipping over to Eng-land that he transferred tothe Royal Flying Corps.
He was in the thick of theaction over France. Thecathedral archives hold afellow officer’s account of aMay 1917 encounter: “Wewere attacked by five Alba-tross scouts which broke upour formation. Between uswe shot down two of theenemy and drove anotherdown, apparently out ofcontrol. My pilot, Capt.Pemberton of BritishColumbia, manoeuvred themachine in a most excellentfashion, evading the fire ofthe Huns as much as possi-ble and giving me everyopportunity to bring myLewis gun into play. Hereceived a spent bullet tothe back, necessitatingspending a week in thecasualty clearing house.”
Three months later, Pem-berton’s luck ran out in a
dogfight over Selvigny innorthern France.
A local man, 46-year-oldLouis Milhem, saw thebiplane come down — andwas dismayed by the waythe Germans treated thedead Canadian, strippingPemberton of his personaleffects, right down to hisbuttons, before leaving thebody in a shoddily madecoffin.
Milhem intervened. Helater explained in a letter toPemberton’s family that hedidn’t want to see the youngpilot buried “in such miser-able conditions.” Milhemwashed Pemberton’s cheeksof dust and blood, combedhis hair — in the process
finding the fatal wound, athree-centimetre gashabove his right eye — gath-ered some flowers andburied him in a better cof-fin at the cemetery in Hon-nechy. A few days later hereturned with the oak cross,which it is believed hecrafted with his own hands(bad information from theGermans resulted in Pem-berton’s rank and initialsbeing a little off).
All this was done at greatpersonal risk. Perhaps defy-ing the occupiers, givingthe Canadian some dignityin death was, at Milhem’sage, his way of waging war.He had already sufferedloss. The factory he had
once run was gone, the Ger-mans hauling away anymachinery that had notalready been destroyed inthe fighting; he laterbecame a farmer.
The family in Victoria,meanwhile, only knew thatPemberton was missing inaction. It wasn’t until 1919,after the war, that Milhemwas able to send somemementos — a lock of Pem-berton’s hair, his epaulettebuttons (the only two notremoved by the Germans).
F.B. Pemberton travelledto France and brought hisson’s cross back to ChristChurch Cathedral, where itremains today.
The family had a tragicwar. Despard was prede-ceased by his 20-year-oldbrother, Lt. Warren Pember-ton, who crashed while serv-ing in the Royal FlyingCorps in 1916. A closefriend, Capt. Wildy Holmes,was personally decoratedfor bravery by King GeorgeV before being killed in1917; dead at age 23, hisname lives on in a street inLangford. (Had they sur-
vived the war, Wildy and thebrothers would have beencousins by marriage, as Maj.Henry Cuthbert Holmesmarried Philippa DespardPemberton in 1917.)
The Pemberton namedied out after that, though itlives on in Victoria’s Pem-berton Holmes real estatecompany. The Holmes fam-ily kept alive the story of the“French farmer,” too, eventhough it was a bit of anunfinished historical jigsaw.
So it was a welcome sur-prise when, this September,Despard Pemberton’s great-nephew, Mike Holmes,received an email from Mil-hem’s great-granddaughter,Véronique Petit Derin. Adoctor in Verdun, France,she was looking for detailsof a story that her familyhad also passed down. “Itwould be great for me tomake live again this mem-ory of a Canadian soldierwho died for us,” she wrote.
It was Mike’s brother,Richard Holmes, who pickedup the correspondence. Heand Derin have since filledthe holes in each other’s
family histories. Photos havebeen swapped. Holmes toldher about family visits to thecross in the cathedral, wherethe tale of her great-grand-father’s bravery isexplained. Derin wrote of alittle silver flask, inscribedin French, that Despard’ssister had sent her great-grandfather in thanks.
“I always wondered whatmy great-grandfather couldhave done to receive a soprecious gift,” she said in anemail to the Times Colonist.“It was kept in my familylike a treasure.”
Now she knows. “When Ithink of my great-grand-father and what he hasdone, tears come to myeyes, really, and I feeldeeply touched.”
Richard Holmes is alsohappy to see that puzzlefilled in. “I suppose it is allabout connecting pieces ofhistory together,” he says,reflecting on the meaningof this story. “It is of courseabout family, but muchmore than that as theimpact of world warreached into so many lives.”
An act of dignity, and defiance
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 2013 A3TIMES COLONIST, VICTORIA, B.C.
Editor: Dave Senick > Telephone: 250-380-5333 > Email: [email protected]
THE CAPITALA N D VA N C O U V E R I S L A N D
JACK [email protected]
REMEMBRANCE DAY
BRUCE STOTESBURY, TIMES COLONIST | HOLMES FAMILYAt left: An oak cross is affixed to the northwest wall inside the main body of ChristChurch Cathedral. It is inscribed: Ici repose le Lieutenant J.D. Pemberton, décédé le 21août 1917. The cross is believed to have been carved by Louis Milhem, a Frenchmanwho was dismayed at how the body of the Canadian — actually Capt. F.D. (Despard)Pemberton — was treated by the Germans. A plaque at the cathedral describes how a“French farmer” took care of Pemberton’s body and arranged a burial.
Above: Brothers Warren, left, and Despard Pemberton flank fellow Victoria residentWildy Holmes. All three men died in the First World War: Warren, 20, crashed whileserving in the Royal Flying Corps in 1916, a year before 24-year-old Despard’s planewent down in a dogfight. Holmes was decorated for bravery by King George V beforebeing killed in 1917 at age 23.
VICTORIA GOES TO WARTo learn more about Victoria and the First World War, go to a newwebsite created by the University of Victoria — acitygoestowar.ca.It offers insight into how the capital changed during that time, usingletters, photos, other documents and a database with the records of6,000 Victorians who served in the Great War.University of Victoria Libraries is adding the 1910-1920 decade to itsonline archive of the Daily Colonist newspaper, allowing readers toexplore the past through news stories of the day. Go tobritishcolonist.ca. The archive expansion was done with the help ofthe Times Colonist.
Nearly a century on, families finish historical puzzle of the French farmer who tended to Victoria man’s burial
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