Veteran Gordie Bannerman accepted on Wednesday a replica of the monument that was built in Toronto commemorating those who fought in the Italian Campaign in WWII.
The monument stands in Nathan Phillips Square in Toronto and the committee who commissioned the monument had a replica made for each of the surviving veterans who fought in the campaign.
MP Rachel Blaney presented Bannerman, 95, with the replica as well as a watch inscribed with “Peace through valour.”
“That’s all in thank you for our amazing work for our country, thank you,” Blaney said. “It’s an honour to be here with you today.”
In 2013 Bannerman said he and his wife were flown out east for a dinner put on by the committee honouring him and his fellow veterans.
“They kept going on about this great band of brothers that fought in Italy,” he said. “We’re looking at each other, who in the hell are they talking about? They were talking about us.”
Bannerman remembered the Italians as family first kind of people.
“They are wonderful folk the Italian people,” he said. “All they wanted was for all of the armies to take off.”
Bannerman’s memoirs can be read at gordiebannerman.com.
