For Posterity’s Sake

In a box of papers I inherited from my father, I found his basic military service record from his time in the navy. This was a document that they’d have issued to him when he signed up and that would have followed him through his service until he left the navy in 1946. It was made of a heavy flexible paper that felt almost like linen fabric. The document listed, in chronological order, all the ships and shore stations he’d been assigned to along with training and promotions.

As part of my genealogy research, I began browsing military history websites to search for the different ships to find photographs and information about them. In the process I came across a site called "For Posterity’s Sake" (www.forprotesterityssake.com).

The person who created this site was attempting to build a record of Canadian navy service personnel and match them to the ships they served on. It seemed like a monumental undertaking, but it appeared to have only recently been launched and already had quite a bit of information on it.

I thought that the founder might be able to help me understand my father’s service history, so I sent him a scan of the document. He replied with an explanation of which were ships and which were shore stations. This was very helpful information since I’d been unable to identify a few of names and didn’t realize they were shore stations.

He asked if he could publish the service record along with a photograph and obituary of my father. He wrote that he would link my father’s record on his site with all the ships he’d served on. It appears here: CPO James Edward Lowe

He then asked if I had any photographs or other memorabilia that I could share related to my father's navy service. Well, I had a small box full, most of which I couldn’t identify, but a few had captions.

So I scanned all the pictures that identified the ship or the location or the date and emailed them. He thanked me for each photo I sent and seemed very excited by a few of them, which he told me were rare or even unique. Apparently service personnel were prohibited from taking photos during military campaigns so there were often no visual records of these activities. I also scanned a few cards and emailed those too.

On this Remembrance Day, it's nice to see my father on this website and know that he won't be forgotten. I hope that For Posterity's Sake accomplishes its goal and can be a memorial for many more Canadian navy personnel. They certainly deserve it.