Teen girl writes Remembrance Day tribute song for Winnipeg's Valour Road boys
'I just want people to know that that's what they did for us'
A 15-year-old girl was so moved by the story of three Winnipeg soldiers that she wrote a song in tribute to them — and to remind people about the importance of Remembrance Day.
Heidi Wright, a student at Winnipeg's Tec Voc High School, is preparing to perform her song, The Boys of Valour Road, for her school at a Remembrance Day assembly on Friday.
Wright said she was moved to write the song by the sacrifice of the three soldiers who fought in the First World War and all happened to live on the same block in Winnipeg's West End. Two of them died overseas.
"It means everything," Wright said. "They went out there, they fought, they gave their all — and I just want people to know that that's what they did for us. They fought for their country and for what they thought was great."
Watch Heidi Wright perform her song in CBC Manitoba's studio
The boys of Valour Road were Cpl. Leo Clarke, Sgt-Major Frederick William Hall and Lt. Robert Shankland — three soldiers who fought in the First World War and all earned the Victoria Cross, the highest military honour in the British Empire. Only 96 of the crosses were awarded to Canadians in the medal's 156-year history.
The three all lived on the same block of Pine Street when they went to fight. In 1925, the street was renamed Valour Road in their honour.
"I know that they were very heroic," Wright said of the soldiers. "They always put other people's lives before them, and I just thought that was really touching, so I decided to write a song about it."
'I want them to feel the emotion that I felt'
Sgt-Major Frederick William Hall died at the Second Battles of Ypres in 1915, after refusing to leave behind three of his wounded comrades. He rescued two of them, but was killed by enemy fire while trying to drag the third to safety.
Cpl. Leo Clarke killed or captured 18 German soldiers and two officers after leaving the trenches at the Somme Front in September 1916. He was killed by enemy shell fire almost two months later.
Lt. Robert Shankland was the only one of the three who returned home. His story was told in the Canadian film Passchendaele, after he left his platoon under heavy enemy fire in the battle in October 1917, and then returned with reinforcements and a plan for a counter-attack.
Wright said performing the song is emotional for her, and she wants it to feel that way for her fellow students, too, when she performs it on Friday.
"I want them to feel the emotion that I felt when I wrote the song," she said.
"When they listen to it, I just want them to feel the same way that I felt, which is really touching and it's just important to know what they did for us."
With files from Wendy Parker
