For 77 years, the Royal Canadian Legion, Dunsdon Branch #461, as per its mission statement, has dedicated itself to serving veterans and their dependents, promoting Remembrance, and acting in service of Canada and the local community.
At its core, the Legion was founded to foster a spirit of camaraderie and mutual support among all who had served, while ensuring that the sacrifices of those who fell in service are never forgotten.
The Dunsdon Legion was first formed with 15 members on June 17, 1947, and originally, meetings were hosted on various properties belonging to the members.
“Back then, they hosted the meetings in a barn which was on somebody’s property and then eventually it was over on Dunsdon Street across from what is now Wilkes Park,” said Ron Butcher, president of Legion #461. “When they outgrew that facility, there were 100 members that all put up, I believe it was, a thousand-dollar debenture to have the building erected where it is now on Tolgate Road in 1966.”
To this day, the Legion’s mission includes supporting veterans through various programs, such as the Poppy Fund and the “Leave the Streets Behind” initiative which helps veterans experiencing homelessness.
“All the money collected from the poppy campaign going on within any Legion and within any territory, is all used to support veterans locally but w e also donate part of our poppy money to the national programs as well,” said Butcher. “We have a program called ‘Don’t Leave the Streets Behind’ which basically tries to find veterans experiencing homelessness so that they’re not living on the streets. We also donate some of that money to the National Hospital Fund which helps support the World War 2 veterans living in places like SunnyBrook Veterans Centre in Toronto and St. Joseph’s Parkwood Institute in London.”
Butcher said the Legion also donates part of the funds to Operation Service Dog, as well as various bursary programs.
“Part of our Poppy money is also donated towards providing service dogs for veterans, and there’s also a number of bursary programs which are open to children of veterans so they can go to school that we support as well,” he said. “We also support the Branford Track and Field Club because every year the Royal Canadian Legion has a national track and field meeting, so we help them participate in that event. Basically, everything we do is in order to make a better community for our veterans, their families and for the youth of our country, that’s really where our focus is.”
While the Legion members have been out doing their part for the poppy campaign, they also hosted their own Remembrance Service on Sunday, November 3, 2024.
“We do a couple of things for our ceremony, so we had the Brant Men of Song and a pianist come out and we also had our church service,” said Butcher. “We have a monument for Captain Richard Steven Leary, who was part of the 2nd Battalion Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry Regiment, so before the church service, we marched a colour party out to the monument, we did the Taps bugle call and then Mr. Leary laid a wreath on his son’s monument. We then had our church service followed by a luncheon. It was nice this year because we had a number of cadets from the Navy League and also from the Starfighter Squadron as part of our colour party.”
Butcher said that while these days the Legion is no longer occupied solely by veterans, but instead, by local community members looking to get involved in the community, the main focus of the non-profit organization is still to help people remember the sacrifices that were made for freedom.
“We have to continue to remember why we have our freedom and who gave us our freedom,” said Butcher. “The people who went out and defended those lines, no matter where they fought, it’s important to remember those sacrifices because we wouldn’t have the Canada we have today without them. It’s very important to continue educating people and to make sure that everyone, the youth of today included, participate in remembrance.”
Kimberly De Jong’s reporting is funded by the Canadian government through its Local Journalism Initiative.The funding allows her to report rural and agricultural stories from Blandford-Blenheim and Brant County. Reach her at kimberly.dejong@brantbeacon.ca.
