HALIFAX — A new memorial recently unveiled in a small Nova Scotia community honors eight brothers whose history of service during the Second World War had been all but lost to local memory.

The Harvie brothers from Gormanville, Nova Scotia, all served in Europe: six returned home, while two died and are buried overseas.

A black granite monument now bears the names and photos of Avard, Burrell, Edmund, Ernest, Ervin, Garnet, Marven and Victor Harvie. It sits in a small memorial park just outside their hometown, next to the Royal Canadian Legion branch in Noel, Nova Scotia.

The number eight is prominently inscribed in the middle of the memorial.

The monument in the town about 70 kilometers north of Halifax is the brainchild of Legion President Jeff Thurber, who only learned of the remarkable story of the Harvie brothers during the service of Remembrance Day organized by its subsidiary last year. It was then that he saw them mentioned in a commemorative book kept by the legion.

Thurber was fascinated by his discovery, but said it became clear to him that over the years the brothers’ story had been “lost in obscurity.” Garnet, the last of the surviving brothers, died in 2000.

“There wasn’t even a plaque to commemorate them,” he said in a recent interview. “I’m sure everyone in the area knew them at the time they served, but of course (their story) just disappeared.”

Victor Harvie, 83, whose father Ernest served in the North Nova Scotia Highlanders during the war, said in an interview he knew few details of his family’s war service.

“None of them ever told us anything,” Harvie said recently, adding that even his uncle Victor’s wife knew very little about her husband’s experiences in the armored corps. His uncle had simply told him: “You don’t have to know that.”

Harvie, who was named after his uncle, also served in the military and enlisted in 1959, and he said that in his experience, many veterans simply didn’t talk about their experiences on the battlefield.

“When I got there, there were still a lot of guys who had been in the war,” he said. “I never heard any of them say anything about what they did or what happened. It was very quiet, shh. I guess they didn’t want to bring back any souvenirs.

Harvie said that while he was stationed in Germany, he was able to visit “several times” his uncle Marven’s grave at the Groesbeek Canadian War Cemetery in the Netherlands.

Marven Harvie, the youngest of eight brothers who served, was killed in March 1945 at the age of 19 while fighting with the North Nova Scotia Highlanders in Germany. Burrell Harvie, wounded while serving in the Canadian Forestry Corps, died aged 32 and was buried in Surrey, United Kingdom in 1942.

Besides Ernest and Victor, other brothers who returned to Canada after the war were Garnet, who also served in the North Nova Scotia Highlanders and was wounded in Normandy after the D-Day landings; Ervin, who was a member of the tank corps; Avard, who was in the artillery corps; and Edmund who served in an artillery regiment.

The Noel monument — built with a $30,000 local fundraiser, including a $5,000 donation from the local fire department — was dedicated last month in a ceremony attended by members of the Harvie family from across Canada.

Thurber said it would be a fitting tribute to ensure a family’s service is not forgotten.

“This should have happened 75 years ago, and now it’s something the next generation will remember,” he said.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published November 5, 2024.

Keith Doucette, The Canadian Press