Retired military chaplain reflects as Remembrance Day approaches

David Prowse’s recollections of armed conflict may not fit into a moment of silence on Remembrance Day, but he knows why he’ll be pausing to reflect.

“Essentially, the sacrifice that’s been made for our freedom,” Prowse said in an interview this week. He will be carrying the service held by the Royal Canadian Legion at the Activity Centre on Nov. 11.

Prowse served in the Canadian Forces as a military chaplain for 23 years and was deployed  twice for a total of nine years. 

“During that time we did a lot of battlefield tours, I went with veterans to a whole bundle of places, as part of the job,” he said. “I’d go to places like Dieppe with veterans that were part of the ill-fated raid.”

As chaplain, Prowse provided pastoral and sacramental ministries, which encompassed a range of responsibilities. “I delivered more death messages in six months in uniform there than I had in six years of ministry,” he said.

Offering counsel and support was one such charge. “(Soldiers are) going into something where you don’t know what you’re going to encounter, so the needs of each one is very different,” he said. “Chaplains have a moral duty to support the people of the industry.”

Prowse, who retired from the military in 1995 and from the Anglican parish in Jasper three years ago, said his role was to support people of the industry, no matter what that industry is. “In this case they are trained for and participate in violence,” he said. “It’s the same way chaplains may serve union workers out on strike or a community that’s in mourning.”

One subject that comes to mind when he thinks about Remembrance Day is his children and grandchildren, particularly family trips when his daughter and son were young.

“On holidays we’d say, ‘Gotta stop here,’ and the children would say, ‘Not here, not another cemetery,” he said. “But they know what it’s all about. They’re recognizing poppies for what they are.”

When it comes to bravery, Prowse recalls a Jewish man who was an expert in electronics, who was brought in to a site 8 km west of Dieppe in 1942 to check out German resources. Prowse encountered the man at a service in honour of the 45th anniversary of the Dieppe Raid. 

“Commandos took this fellow in,” Prowse said. “They wanted to know what state Germany’s radar was at that point. They had been given instructions that he was not to be captured, they were to bring him in and get him out.”

The Anglican Church will hold a service Sunday, Nov. 9 and the Legion’s service will be at the Activity Centre at 10:45 a.m. on Nov. 11.