Yvonne Sugimoto (third from left) with representatives from the Lethbridge Legion General Stewart Branch No. 4 in front of Joseph Ferguson's gravestone (Lethbridge News Now)

By Justin Goulet

Last Post Fund honours veteran with ties to Lethbridge

Jul 7, 2021 | 9:34 AM

LETHBRIDGE, AB – A war veteran with a connection to Lethbridge is being remembered.

On the 100^th anniversary of the poppy being recognized as a symbol of remembrance; the Last Post Fund unveiled a recently installed permanent gravestone for Joseph Thomas Patrick Ferguson at Mountain View Cemetery in Lethbridge.

READ MORE: Local legion marks poppy’s 100^th anniversary

The Last Post Fund is a non-profit that strives to ensure all veterans receive a proper headstone and their acts of service are honoured properly. It’s supported by the Royal Canadian Legion and Veterans Affairs Canada.

Volunteers receive submissions of veterans who has since passed away and do not have a proper headstone. Research is done for however long it may take before a gravestone is installed. Once installed, the stone is maintained for life by Veterans Affairs Canada.

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Yvonne Sugimoto is a director with the non-profit’s Alberta branch. After about a year of research, she was able to find out more about Ferguson. He was born in 1894 in England and served in World War One and World War Two, receiving medals both in the UK and in Canada for his service.

Sugimoto noted that he married in England in 1919.

“I’m not certain if they stayed in the UK until 1930, but I did find evidence of him coming to Canada with his wife and children.”

Ferguson had a wife and two daughters.

“When he was in Canada, he was a highway inspector in the Lethbridge area and in 1958, he became a commissionaire.”

The gravestone installed for Joseph Thomas Patrick Ferguson at Mountain View Cemetery in Lethbridge. (Lethbridge News Now)

Sugimoto remarked that Ferguson “was a proud member of the Canadian Legion and he was a very honourable and dedicated man.”

“He fought and sacrificed for our freedom.”

Ferguson passed away in 1960.

She said that although information on Ferguson was relatively easy to find, that’s not always the case when researching the lives of deceased veterans.

Sugimoto explained that, “there are others I have been working on for 10 years and I still haven’t been able to find their records, but hopefully one day some clue will show up and it will click, and they will get a headstone as well.”

“Some men served with aliases and those are particularly difficult to figure out. The obituary may mention that they were a veteran, but then finding the military records to support that and get the headstones is very, very hard.”

Her father was a veteran, having served in World War Two. Sugimoto said, “he was unable to speak about his service until shortly before his death.”

“So many of these men died alone, and their graves are unmarked. I think it’s extremely important that we remember all of the soldiers, all of the veterans, because they did sacrifice so much for our freedom.”

Anyone who has any information about an unmarked grave site of a war veteran can contact the Last Post Fund here to provide those details. Sugimoto noted that anyone hoping to make a monetary donation to the cause can do so and receive an income tax deduction, as the Last Post Fund is a charitable organization.

Additionally, she encourages everyone to talk about the sacrifices of veterans with their friends and families.

“If we don’t know about the past, we can’t learn from it.”

At this time, Sugimoto is researching about 23 veterans in southern Alberta. She also has 187 gravestones that have been approved and installed and another 34 names have been submitted for approval and further research.