WW75 – Women of the War

November 6 – 8, 2020 
November 11, online

Mountain View Cemetery
Abray Section (between 33 & 37 Ave)

Presented by Little Chamber Music
in partnership with The Vancouver Bach Choir
and Mountain View Cemetery

To mark the 75th anniversary of the end of World War 2, Little Chamber Music and the Bach Choir presented WW75 – A Waltz for Choir and Brass, a work to honour 75 enlisted women who died during their service

WW75 – A Waltz for Choir and Brass was presented both live in a series of unscheduled pop-up performances by smaller groups of singers and brass quintet, taking place outdoors in the Abray section of Mountain View Cemetery from November 6-8, and as part of our online only ceremony on November 11.

A series of 75 signs along the Abray roadway, one telling each story, were in place from November 3-13. Designed by John Endo Greenaway, these signs feature information and photos from the war records, as well as stories of service.

Unscheduled pop-up performances of WW75 – A Waltz for Brass and Choir (approx 7min) featuring members of the Vancouver Bach Choir with Audrey Patterson and Jeremy Vint – trumpets, Nick Anderson – french horn, Marina Antoniou – trombone, Marc Lindy – tuba, conducted by Cathrie Yuen took place over three days.

There was no in-person event on Remembrance Day, 2020. The online ceremony on November 11 featured the 75 voice Bach Choir who recorded their parts for WW75 remotely, and we also presented double bassist Meaghan Williams performing an arrangement of Laura Williams Helden’s part from 11. We have performed 11 almost every year since 2014 when it was created in honour of the families of the Renfrew Heights Veterans Housing Project. The piece honoured 11 specific veterans, and their birthdates, service numbers, date of death and more were woven into their individual parts. Laura was the only woman among the 11 veterans, and we wanted to give her the spotlight this year.

Very few of the war records for these women have been digitized, and these stories have been archived for 75 years. During a 5 day research trip at Library and Archives Canada we went through the war records to be featured in this project, collecting basic and biographical information on the 75 servicewomen, piecing together stories of both service and personal triumph and tragedy, and took over 1000 photographs of materials in the war records. These included photo ID cards, pictures of graves, handwritten forms, and many different kinds of military reports.

These are not stories of battlefields and famous events, but personal histories. Stories of service like Doris Burney, who enlisted to watch over her 18 year old sister, or Selena Alexander who came from a military family (5 of her brothers were enlisted), as well as young women like Rita Labbe (who likely lied about her age to enlist) who were desperate for a way out of their small town lives. A plane that went missing over Vancouver Island claimed the lives of Pamela Bennett and Nora Johnson, and a plane crash off the coast of Newfoundland claimed Irene Watson. Mary Rech and Imelda Stever drowned together during a day off, neither knew how to swim even though they were in the Navy and serving on a ship. There are several tragedies involving hidden pregnancies (since a pregnancy meant an immediate discharge) like Olive Clegg, who died alone because she couldn’t bring herself to tell her parents, and a heartbreaking number of suicides. These are 75 stories that remind us how far beyond the battlefield the cost of war is felt, and of the tens of thousands who served beyond the front lines.