By Joel van der Veen

DAVIDSON — For members of the Royal Canadian Legion Branch No. 51, this year has been the busiest in recent memory.

On July 1, the branch unveiled a new monument, a granite pillar bearing the names of 614 men and women from the area who have served their country in uniform.

The $15,000 project, in the works for several years, stands as a companion to the older cenotaph that has stood on Davidson’s main street since 1926.

The next month, the Legion hosted a stop on the “Birth of a Nation” tour, featuring replicas of the planes used in the Battle of Vimy Ridge in 1917.

Upwards of 300 people attended a meet-and-greet on Aug. 16, where they could chat with the three pilots and see the Nieuport II replicas up close, while roughly 100 attended a dinner in their honour at the town hall that same night.

Gordon McRae, president of the local Legion branch, said they have a total of 38 members, having added several new recruits in the past year.

“We don’t do a lot, but we do good stuff,” McRae said.

One annual duty is the public Remembrance Day service, organized by the Legion and the Davidson Inter-Church Association (DICA).

Due to an aging membership and declining numbers, the Legion branch announced in 2007 that it would no longer organize a public Nov. 11 service. (Annual services continued at Davidson School.)

Three years later, the Legion branch and local churches joined forces to revive the tradition, and it has continued ever since.

This year’s service drew about 175 people to Davidson Town Hall.

“We are reminded of the sacrifices that were being made and are still being made,” said emcee Mary Jane Morrison.

She said these include both historic battles — like Vimy Ridge and Passchendaele, both fought in 1917 — and today’s conflicts, “wars that were and wars that continue.” Continue reading Nov. 11 service wraps up busy year for Legion branch →

This week’s edition of the Leader features two stories of how one local family was touched by the First World War.

The first story tells of Pte. Thomas P. Shearer, a Davidson resident who died in action at Passchendaele, Belgium on Oct. 30, 1917, one hundred years ago last week.

Among those he left behind was Beatrice Lick (1892-1987), a schoolteacher in Davidson to whom he had proposed marriage. Included in this week’s paper is a letter written by Beatrice to her aunt in Winnipeg, shortly after receiving the news of Thomas’s death.

The second story is about Cecil Lick (1895-1968), who served overseas during the war. He survived and returned home to farm in the Davidson area, but carried the psychological and physical trauma of the war for the rest of his life.

Both stories were submitted to the paper by Donna Longley of Victoria, B.C., who is the great-niece of both Cecil Lick and Beatrice Lick.

We thank Donna and her family for their contributions and trust that our readers will appreciate these personal stories of the war’s impact. 

Submitted by Donna Longley

One hundred years ago, Thomas Pitcairn Shearer, a 23-year-old resident of Davidson, Sask., was killed in action in the muddy trenches of Passchendaele, on Oct. 30, 1917. 

Pte. Thomas Shearer, Regiment No. 114095, was born Dec. 19, 1893, in Linlithgowshire, Scotland and immigrated to Canada as a young man.  While in Scotland, Thomas served for three years with the Sixth Black Watch (Royal Highlanders), a militia based in Perth, stationed to defend the Scottish coastal area.

Thomas moved to Canada and landed employment with the Royal Bank in Winnipeg. Later he was transferred as a bank clerk to the Davidson, Sask., branch. While working in Davidson, he met a young teacher, Beatrice Lick. 

Her parents, William and Mary Jane Lick, farmed in the Davidson area and had four children: Beatrice, Cecil, Florence and Robert. 

Beatrice was bright and obtained her bachelor’s degree in education from the University of Toronto. She enjoyed teaching and “Tommy” Shearer was her brown-eyed beau. Thomas proposed marriage to Beatrice before he left for Europe, but she could not decide whether or not to marry him at that time. 

Pte. Thomas enlisted in the Canadian military in Saskatoon at the age of 21 in June of 1915, to eventually become a member of the Fifth Regiment Canadian Mounted Rifles Quebec Regiment. At 23 years old he was bravely present at Vimy Ridge, Ypres and Passchendaele, where he was ultimately killed in action. 

Thomas’s tragic death is commemorated on the Menin Gate Memorial at Leper, West-Vlaanderen, Belgium, which bears the names of 55,000 men who were lost without trace during the defense of the Ypres Salient in the First World War.   

Beatrice Lick lived from 1892 to 1987 and never married following Thomas’s death. During her long career, she taught in rural schools throughout Saskatchewan and was considered the “best teacher” by her students.

Today, an annual $2,000 scholarship is offered in her name through the University of Saskatchewan by “the friends of the late Beatrice Z. Lick,” for studies in English language and literature. Beatrice’s descendants kept the touching letter she wrote to her Aunt Emily in Winnipeg, after receiving word that her beau, Thomas Shearer, was killed in action at Passchendaele. 

To read Emily’s letter as well as the story of Cecil Lick, see the Nov. 6 edition of The Davidson Leader, or call 306-567-2047 to subscribe today.

By Joel van der Veen

REGINA — One of Davidson’s own was among the honourees in this year’s CBC Saskatchewan Future 40.

The CBC contest featured 40 people under the age of 40 who are making their mark in the province.

Nicole Baldwin, currently working on her master’s degree at the University of Saskatchewan, was announced as one of the winners on Oct. 25.

Nicole, 24, is the oldest child of Tony and Sandra Baldwin of Davidson. She was nominated in the category of “Community, Social Activism and Volunteerism.”

Her dad and her friend Hayley Willner nominated her for the CBC competition, which began in late September.

Nicole learned she had been nominated in mid-October, and she had some advance warning that she had made it as a finalist, but had to keep the news under wraps.

She said both her nomination and her success came as a surprise, given the crowded field of nominees.

“I had been looking through the nomination profiles,” Nicole said. “I didn’t think I had much of a shot . . . It was a pleasant surprise.”

Nominations were accepted from Oct. 9 through Oct. 17, with a panel of judges selecting the top 40 nominees.

Nicole and Hayley went to the CBC studio in Regina on Oct. 26 for a reception and the presentation of the awards, with most of the winners present.

“Everyone that attended was from such a wide range of backgrounds,” said Nicole, adding that she enjoyed the diverse crowd since she spends most of her days surrounded by fellow toxicologists.

Currently, Nicole is 10 months into her master of science in toxicology. She is working with a team of researchers on a joint project with the U of S and Montreal’s McGill University, funded by Genome Canada.

Their goal is to develop and, eventually, commercialize a tool to assess and prioritize environmental chemicals.

Specifically, the tool will allow researchers to assess the impact of known chemicals — both individually and collectively — on soil, air and acquatic systems.

They will then be able to prioritize those chemicals in terms of their likely environmental impact, allowing them to compare options and determine which one poses the least risk.

Nicole said she hopes to complete her degree within three years, but the project’s five-year timeline means someone else will pick up where she leaves off.

She said she enjoys the self-directed nature of her research work, as well as working with the other researchers on the project.

“I absolutely love it,” she said. “I’d stay in school forever if they’d let me.” Continue reading Baldwin among CBC Saskatchewan Future 40 picks →

By Joel van der Veen

DAVIDSON — Major revisions of some key town bylaws are still in the works, council heard at a recent meeting.

The status of the revisions was a topic of discussion during Davidson town council’s regular meeting on Oct. 17.

Coun. Arlene Low expressed some concern regarding a lack of regular formal updates on the bylaws and other matters.

She said she finds it frustrating how council will request action or discuss a topic at one meeting, and “then they’re never brought up again.”

In May, council requested that town staff prepare a draft of a business licensing bylaw, to target businesses that operate in town but whose owners do not currently pay commercial property taxes.

The current business licensing bylaw was approved in 1981 and remains on the books, though it has not been updated or enforced in decades.

Regarding the new bylaw, Mayor Tyler Alexander said at October’s meeting, “It’s something that we’re looking at putting in for next year, so we’ve got time yet.”

In March, council agreed to form a committee to oversee the Davidson cemetery, and to replace the existing bylaw, which dates back to 1951 and was last updated in 1979. The committee was formed, but council has yet to see a draft of a revised bylaw.

Following a pair of dog bite incidents in August and September, council also agreed to a recommendation from town staff that the animal control bylaw be reviewed.

In that case, the aim was to expedite the process of dealing with animals deemed dangerous, by eliminating the step of holding a hearing.

Within the last year, council has also requested a revision of the fire bylaw, with co-operation from local fire officials.

Assistant administrator Donna Bessey told the Leader last week that she is gradually working on the bylaw revisions as time allows, juggling that with her other responsibilities.

“They’re all important,” she said. “I’m doing the best that I can.”

Sometimes, Bessey said, council provides only limited details in regards to the changes they want to see, which delays the process.

Coun. Todd Lockwood said last week that better communication between council and staff would help the process along. Continue reading Bylaw changes still in the works →