Murray Wood: Isn't it time for more 'we' than 'oui' in Rideau Hall?
Louise Arbour brings much more than French skills to her role as the king's representative, but she also has taken contr...
More than a century after he died in the trenches of France in the First World War, a Saskatchewan soldier is getting a coulee, near Pipestone Creek, named in his honour.
Lance-Cpl. Wilfred Jordens served in the Saskatchewan Regiment of the Canadian Infantry with the 28th Battalion.
His nephew, Thomas Jordens Sr., nominated his uncle, whom he describes as a brave soldier who went through hell and back while overseas.
“He had a case of German measles while he was fighting and he had a skin condition,” Thomas explained. “I can only imagine what it was like for him to be living at that time.”
Jordens died at the age of 21, while in battle, on Aug. 21, 1917 — two years after enlisting. His body never did make it home to Saskatchewan, making it one of more than 11,000 fallen Canadians whose remains are still interred on the battlefield.
Thomas noted his uncle grew up on the farm near Whitewood where this coulee runs, so it’s symbolic that it’s named “Jordens Coulee.”
“It really means a lot to our family,” he said. “That farm is still in our family, so it’s quite significant to the fact that the government honoured him.”
The coulee was named through the province’s GeoMemorial Commemorative Naming Program, which was established in 1947.
Since then, nearly 4,000 geographical features — such as lakes, hills and valleys — have been named across Saskatchewan in honour of military personnel, police officers, emergency responders and others killed while serving our country or province.
