When the Great War finally ended, local veterans including Dr Benjamin Marr and Archie Payne decided to honour the fallen by planting trees, changing street names and building cenotaphs at Murrayville and Fort Langley. The sacrifice of William Arthur Wilson, a Fort Langley farmer who was killed at Passchendaele by a sniper’s bullet, was commemorated with the planting of an Oregon maple tree at the corner of Glover Road and 96th Avenue. One hundred years later these maple trees had started to die and many were cut down; hardier sugar maples were then planted at these commemorative sites.
In the case of W.A. Wilson’s tree, the Langley Heritage Society’s Fred Pepin milled wood from the old maple to create sturdy planks. They were transformed into a bench by carpenter Kevin Terpstra and that bench now rests in front of Heritage Manor bearing his name. Lest we forget.
