For many, Remembrance Day is marked by simple gestures like wearing a poppy or attending a local ceremony. But for Miami twins Rebecca and Alexa Knox, it’s an annual pilgrimage steeped in family history and heartfelt creativity.
Each year before Nov. 11, the Knox sisters visit the Miami War Memorial, where they look for their last name – a name that tells a story of bravery and sacrifice from generations past.
The girls’ great-great-grandfather, George A. H. Knox, and great-grandfather, George William Knox, served in the First World War and Second World War, respectively, and both men returned home.
George Andrew Huntley Knox was 22 years old when he enlisted in the First World War on Dec. 15, 1914. Enlisting with the Canadian Expeditionary Force (CEF), the country’s overseas force during the war, he made corporal with the 32nd Battalion. He fought until he was wounded in the chest and both legs as a Sgt. in August 1917. After spending five months recovering in the field hospital, George A. H. Knox was discharged and sent home — he fought for a total of four years and one month.
On Feb. 13, 1917, George A. H. Knox was awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal at Vimy Ridge for gallantry in action, the second highest award for the action for all army ranks below commissioned officers.
Standard Photo by Lana Meier
George William Knox enlisted in the Second World War at 21 in 1942. He served overseas from 1943 to 1945, touring North Africa, Italy, and Holland with the Royal Canadian Regiment and the Princess Patricia Canadian Light Infantry. George William Knox then returned to Canada on July 4, 1945, with the first Pacific Draft. While training, he came down with jaundice, so he was sent home to recover.
The ten-year-old twins, Rebecca and Alexa, don’t know much about their great-great and great-grandfathers, but they know they’re heroes.
“It’s kind of scary and sad,” said Rebecca, noting how proud she feels when she sees their names on the cenotaph. “I wish I could actually meet them.”
The Miami War Memorial was erected in 2021 and has 705 names inscribed on it, each belonging to residents of the rural municipality (RM) of Thompson who fought in the Boer War (1899 – 1902), the First World War (1914 – 1918), the Second World War (1939 – 1945), the Korean War (1950 – 1953), the Balkans War (1991 – 1995), and the peacekeeping missions in Egypt (1956 – 1967 and 1973 – 1979), Cyprus (1964 – 1993), and Kosovo (1998 – 2001).
Each Remembrance Day, the Royal Canadian Legion holds the National Youth Remembrance Contests, in which students nationwide submit drawings, poems, letters, and more in honour of those who fought for Canada. Miami School students participate in the contest each year, and Rebecca and Alexa take the opportunity to put their drawing skills to the test.
Learning to draw from their older sister, the twins crafted extremely detailed and thoughtful pictures to “remember the fallen”. Alexa’s picture shows two girls kneeling in front of crosses, with a helmet resting on the picture’s main cross. A Canadian flag flies on the right side of the drawing next to a church, and the entire scene sits over a sunset background under the words “Remember the Fallen.”
“People lose people, and they want to remember them,” said Alexa. “I know that they tried to make our country free.”
Rebecca’s picture shows a field of crosses with helmets resting on them and a soldier paying their respects. A plane flies over a war memorial next to the soldier, with a poppy and the words “Lest We Forget” across it. In the top left corner of the drawing are two soldiers carrying a casket with a Canadian flag draped over it.
“I just thought of somebody who fought in the war, and I wanted to make it feel like it was after the war,” said Rebecca. “It honours everyone who died in battle.”
Though their drawings weren’t chosen as contest winners, the twins don’t mind. They said they just like drawing and remembering those who fought in war. Rebecca already has some ideas for next year’s picture, but she said the idea could change between now and then.
Rebecca and Alexa are singing with their Grade 5 class for the school’s Remembrance Day service this year, performing “Remember the Time” and “Peace on Earth.”
