The Port Moody Heritage Society and the Port Moody Station Museum are asking for your help to support our Museum project of building a replica WWI trench. We are doing this in remembrance of one of the most important eras of Canadian history. 100 years ago men from both sides of the front lines endured so much and sacrificed their youth and wellbeing for their nations. Canadian soldiers, men and women, fought for the freedoms we have today. It is important that what they did for us is known, remembered and appreciated.
We are naming the trench exhibit in honour of an early city Port Moody city engineer, Lieutenant Augustus Wilberforce McKnight, who was killed by a sniper’s bullet in 1916. Our group of dedicated volunteers have committed themselves to making what will become one of the most significant exhibits in Canada to commemorate the First World War Centennial. The trench will provide a real hands-on experience to all visitors. We believe it is important to provide a living experience of what ‘the war to end all wars’ was like, everything from mud, dirt-filled sandbags, shell craters and barbed wire. The experience will be real; missing only are the gunfire, poison gas, lice and Trench Foot.
We are building the trench as accurately as we can. The work is done by hand and not machine, using only picks and shovels. The Great War was the first war to use massive trenching systems to battle from, so looking at historic photographs, a lot of the trenches were haphazard and roughly pieced together using sandbags and some wood salvaged from the ruins of a nearby building. Other trenches were made according to military engineering manuals where the sappers took great pride in their work. We have constructed an observation post that is a key feature of the trench system that also has a firing trench facing no man’s land and communication trenches that would bring fresh troops to the frontline. When completed in April, we will have examples of many features of a trench system. We are unsure if we will build a field latrine to be that authentic.
The trench will also be an educational display which will be open to all visitors able and willing to walk along the path of duck boards. Programs are being developed for students to attend and get some inkling of what it was like to live at the front during the Great War. Other public events will be planned and are hoped to draw many people and create much interest in what we are creating. The display is intended to promote an important part of Canadian history and pay tribute. The message we hope the trench will clearly convey is peace and remembrance.
In order to help us make this unique and important display come to life, we need your help. We need your financial support to have the trench ready for Vimy Day in April and maintain it a safe and accessible condition for everyone.