After more than 50 years, Sask. WW II vet gets permanent headstone to replace wooden cross

Almost 80 years ago, Denis Denniel was among the thousands of Canadian soldiers who stormed Juno Beach on June 6, 1944.

Denniel was a rifleman with what was then called the Regina Rifle Regiment, 3rd Canadian Infantry Division, and was wounded that day.

"He had to be taken by stretcher bearer back to the field hospital so that he could recuperate," said Randy Brooks, a retired colonel and former commanding officer of the Royal Regina Rifles.

"When [Denniel] was finished recuperating, he rejoined the Canadian Forces in the field as a military police officer for the rest of the war."

Born in Val Marie, Sask., Denniel went on to settle in Swift Current after the war and died in 1968.

His grave in the veterans' plot of Swift Current's Mount Pleasant Cemetery was marked by a wooden white cross that had his name misspelled.

That is, until last Friday — when a permanent granite headstone replaced the wooden cross.

On Friday, May 17, 2024 — 56 years after his death — Denis Denniel finally got a granite headstone to replace the white wooden cross at his gravesite. (Bonnie Allen/CBC)

Retired major Brad Hrycyna, a former commanding officer of the Saskatchewan Dragoons, has been on a search for veterans' unmarked graves.

Hrycyna is a volunteer researcher for the Last Post Fund's unmarked grave program.

In Mount Pleasant, he located 22 graves marked only with a white wooden cross, one of which was Denniel's.

"We go out and find the temporary markers and then research them to ensure that the veteran gets a proper dignified permanent headstone," Hrycyna said.

"I do this to honour our veterans."

A ceremony was held on Friday to replace the cross with the headstone.

It was a moving experience for Denniel's niece, Mariette LeBlanc, who was at the ceremony along with her sister, Lorraine Medforth.

Denis Denniel's nieces, Lorraine Medforth, left, and Mariette LeBlanc, attended the ceremony on Friday. (Bonnie Allen/CBC)

"The last time I saw him, he was putting me on the train from Swift Current to go back to Montreal, because that's where I was living at the time," said a tearful LeBlanc.

"And two weeks later he passed away, and I couldn't come back home. And so I'm here now, and it really means a lot. It's like I didn't miss that funeral, because I was able to do it today."

Through his research, Hrycyna has verified 13 of the Swift Current graves of Canadian military veterans and has submitted requests for the crosses to be replaced with proper military headstones.

Denniel's was the first headstone to arrive.

Five others are veterans of Britain and Belgium, and records from those countries are being searched for.

Hrycyna said Denniel's gravesite had a lot of information that was very helpful.

"His regimental number was there, his regiment was there," Hrycyna. "His name was misspelled, but I was able to discover that, so it fell together quite quickly.

Relatives of Denis Denniel hold photos of him from when he served in the Second World War. (Bonnie Allen/CBC)

He was also able to track down Denniel's role with the Regina Rifles during the war, he said, which shows "that he served with the regiment and that he landed on D-Day, and that he was wounded on D-Day."

Hrycyna continues to research the four remaining graves.

Four of the temporary markers have been in place for 100 or more years.

It is not known why Denniel's grave was marked with a simple white wooden cross.

"Whether it was that the family at the time couldn't afford a proper marker or perhaps just wanted the temporary marker" isn't clear, Hrycyna said. But "now we're going to have permanent markers for them."

Friday's ceremony was organized by the Swift Current Royal Canadian Legion Branch 56 and the Last Post Fund, a non-profit that works to ensure all veterans have dignified funerals and military gravestones.

Current members of the Royal Regina Rifles are preparing to deploy overseas on Operation Calvados — the name of the 80th anniversary commemoration in honour of the Regina Rifles who fought at Juno Beach.