"We're all Canadians and these things bind us," says a British Columbia man who found war memorabilia belonging to a First World War soldier from Dauphin in his family's new home.
Doug Finley's family took possession of their home in Port Moody in October. That's when they found some old boxes belonging to a previous owner who passed away, one of which contained war medals belonging to Private Garth Phare.
He says their curiosity piqued right away. There were photos in the box, and names and inscriptions on the medals, so they went online to find out more.
They found a note about how Private Phare died on the Canadian Veterans' website, and Finley says it gave them goosebumps.
"Basically the note read that he passed away in November during the Great War, World War One, at Passchendaele. And as soon as we saw Passchendaele, really we looked at each other as like, you know, we've got a piece of Canadian history in our hands here."
Finley says they have a kind of vested interest now in Phare and the community he came from.
"We feel like we were able to return something to where it belongs. We never had a thought of taking it and trying to sell it (or) something like that. That never crossed our mind. We thought right away this belongs in Dauphin and we should return this back to the city."
City of Dauphin assistant administrative officer Sharla Griffiths says a package received on October 7 contained photos of and medals from Private Phare, along with a simple, hand-written note regarding his death.
Private Garth Phare died November 12, 1917 of wounds received at Passchendaele. His name can be found on Dauphin's cenotaph on Memorial Boulevard.
