New display for Lethbridge Military Museum
A new temporary display has been loaned to the Lethbridge Military Museum. It will showcase how veterans were able to build Canada in a post-war environment. The display is called A Better World: Post-War Social Movements and the Canadian Veteran. The Great War generated hundreds of thousands of veterans after it ended in 1918. More comprehensive support was needed for families once they came back. Issues like PTSD, physical and mental health were not the only things a soldier had to deal with. Major Robert Mein of the Lethbridge 20th Independent Field Battery says if you look back on your own life on something that was hard to achieve, those experiences transform and change you.
“Many of the times in military service we often think of the hardest things we’ve done in the military as being the worst of times and the best of times. Amplify that many times when you think about going to war. My grandfather wouldn’t speak of the war at all. Would not utter a word about it. He would leave a room if you started even talking about it. Other people reacted differently to the war. My great uncles all talked about it quite openly. There’s not doubt about it, it was a transformative experience and shaped the way they viewed the world and how they would live their life from that point on.”
The display will be available through to Remembrance Day on November 11th.
The Lethbridge Military Museum is open from noon to 4pm every Wednesday. You can contact the museum if you would like a private viewing as well by calling 403-892-6531.