Last week the federal government acknowledged a list of citations in Ottawa in a Mixed Honours Investiture Ceremony. Local resident, Ralph McLean was presented with a Meritorious Service Medal in the Civil Division.
McLean has been commemorating soldiers killed in war and peace keeping missions for more than two decades. Through his self-funded Canadian and international travels, he has identified unmarked war graves, which has helped expand the documentation of the British Commonwealth military history.
“This started out as a hobby that turned into a passion, and then turned into this award,” said McLean. “I started in the mid to late 1990s, photographing war graves around Canada, because our war dead aren’t all buried overseas. There were several different volunteers doing this across Canada.