Canadian Victoria Cross recipient remembered with wreath-laying (01/28/96)

Canadian Victoria Cross recipient remembered with wreath-laying

KINGSTON, Ontario - Spurred on by Ron Sorobey, first vice-president of the Ukrainian Canadian Professional and Business Association of Ottawa, efforts have begun to properly commemorate the record of Canada's only Ukrainian Canadian Victoria Cross winner, Filip Konowal.

In August 1917, near Lens, France, Cpl. Konowal single-handedly destroyed two enemy machine guns and killed 16 German soldiers before being himself severely wounded. For his bravery he was promoted to sergeant and awarded the most prestigious medal of the British Empire.

Ironically, while Cpl. Konowal fought for Canada, thousands of other Ukrainian Canadians were being unjustly imprisoned in concentration camps as "enemy aliens" during Canada's first national internment operations of 1914-1920.

Along with representatives of the Embassy of Ukraine, a wreath-laying ceremony took place at Sgt. Konowal's gravesite in Ottawa's Notre Dame Cemetery, on December 6, 1995, coinciding with Ukrainian Armed Forces Day.

Earlier, members of Montreal's Royal Canadian Legion Branch 183 (Mazepa Branch) and of Toronto's Branch 360 (Konowal Branch) began the process of negotiating with Canada's Department of Veterans Affairs to ensure that a proper monument, indicating Sgt. Konowal's distinction as a Victoria Cross winner, be placed at his grave. Following the intervention of the Ukrainian Canadian Civil Liberties Association, it is expected that a government-funded marker will be prepared and installed by the late spring of 1996.

Efforts are also under way to ensure that Sgt. Konowal is properly identified as a Ukrainian in the records of the Canadian War Museum, that the painting of him by Major Arthur Ambrose McEnvoy is put on public display in the Parliament Buildings and that his actual Victoria Cross, thought to have been sold to a British collector, is placed on permanent exhibit. In a letter (December 8, 1995) to Dr. Lubomyr Luciuk, from the secretary of the Victoria Cross and George Cross Association, Mrs. D. Grahame, it was noted that Sgt. Konowal's medal is held by the Canadian War Museum.

Working with the UCCLA, Royal Canadian Legion Branches 183 and 360 are also exploring the possibility of installing a trilingual bronze tablet in memory of Filip Konowal at Branch 360 headquarters on Queen Street West in Toronto.

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