By Andrea Lister
In May 2023 a group of researchers from the Maple Ridge Family History Group undertook a community history project to discover the stories of those men who lost their lives during the First World War and who are named on the Maple Ridge Cenotaph and Whonnock Lake plaque.
Over the past year and a half our team of researchers located hundreds of records to add to the hundreds of records previously located by Annette Fulford, who undertook the original research on her own initiative.
Of the 51 men named, only one continues to elude us – L. Griffin.
L. Griffin was listed as one of the names inscribed on the Cenotaph in the “Unveil Monument to Heros of Maple Ridge” article published in The Gazette on 31 May 1923. Griffin is also listed on the Maple Ridge Legion Branch #88 Memorial Plaque. However, he is not listed on the Municipality of Maple Ridge Honour Roll at St John the Divine Anglican Church or in The Gold Stripe Roll of Honour published in 1919; nor in The British Columbian, Victory Edition, published on June 24, 1919.
Research is hampered by the fact Maple Ridge did not have its own newspaper until 1922 and compounded by the fact that directories were not published for the Lower Mainland of British Columbia from 1914 through to 1917.
The Returned Soldiers Reception Committee began to make plans to create a memorial tablet and monument in 1919. The Gazette reported on 8 February 1923 that the committee reassured the council that “the names had been carefully scrutinized and every precaution taken to be accurate. The names engraved were soldiers of Maple Ridge.” While the minutes of the council meetings have survived and been digitized, the reports of the committees have either not been unearthed or were not retained.
The initial sentiment of the Cenotaph committee was that the names of the soldiers were soldiers of Maple Ridge, however, research shows that some of the service men did not reside in Maple Ridge or Pitt Meadows prior to enlistment, but had relatives who settled in the area after the war.
An Ethel E. Griffin appears in the 1917 District of Maple Ridge Collectors Roll as owning property in Ruskin in subdivision 13 and 14 at the southwest quarter, lot 9.
1917 District of Maple Ridge Collectors Roll, Entries 1806 and 1807, page 133. City of Maple Ridge. https://www.mapleridge.ca/build-do-business/planning-land-use/heritage-conservation/historic-resources-and-research
Nothing definitive has yet been found on Ethel Griffin.
The Commonwealth War Graves website and Library and Archives’ First World War Personnel Records database for L. Griffin turn up a Leo Patrick Griffin who enlisted in Vancouver and worked as a marine engineer. However, there is nothing in his personnel record that connects him to Maple Ridge.
Research for other soldiers also shows that sometimes the soldiers were known by their middle name or a nickname. Also, some of the names are misspelled. As well, it is possible that Griffin did not join the Canadian Expeditionary Force but was a merchant marine or enlisted in England with the British Expeditionary Force, the Royal Air Force, or the Royal Navy.
Please check out the online exhibit.
If anyone has information on the identity of L. Griffin, or any of the soldiers on the website, we invite you to get in touch.