Have you asked yourself why military grave stones all look different, and the engraved words sometime tell a story, and other times just provide name, rank, military number, DOB and DOD?

Mark Dams did, and he reached out to the Shilo Stag for answers. He has always wondered why his brother’s military grave stone is different from those around it in a Winnipeg-based cemetery.

“My brother Norbert Alex Wolfgang Dams is buried in the Field of Honour site at Brookside Memorial and my sister and I recently visited his grave,” said Dams. “Norbert died on Oct. 16, 1960 and over the years we wondered why his stone is slightly different to the others in that the cross is on the lower part of the stone as opposed to the vast, vast majority of the others where the cross is on the top.” 

Wanting to know why the grave stone looked different, Dam applied to Veterans Affairs to receive the official death certificate to determine his brother’s cause of death.

“Our parents, long gone now, told us the cause [of death] was suicide and we are assuming the reason for the difference in the appearance of the stone is a result of this. I have not yet heard from Veterans Affairs,” he said.

Dams wanted to know if the cross on the lower portion of the stone is a result of someone in authority making a decision to differentiate the death of a soldier from suicide to the others who died on natural causes or health issues.

This Stag scribe asked former RCA Museum director Marc George about the military grave stones Veterans Affairs install at the gravesite of fallen soldiers or military members who survived wars and came home and lived out their lives, choosing to be buried in military sections of graveyards or cemeteries.

“The circumstances of the individual’s death have absolutely no bearing on the information on the gravestone,” explained George. “Families can elect to have a badge inscribed on the gravestone, in which case the cross is placed in a lower position. If the soldier’s gravestone has no regimental or service badge engraved upon it, the cross is placed in the top position.”

Looking at a photograph of Norbert Mann’s gravestone, George observed there is a gravestone with a badge at the top.

“Norbert’s gravestone has the Canadian Army badge at the top. Rest assured this is the normal placement of both the badge and the cross for all deceased soldiers, including all those killed in action during wartime,” he said. “There is absolutely no differentiation on gravestones based upon the nature of the death of the soldier. Even soldiers executed by firing squad for crimes in the First World War have identical badge and cross placement on their gravestones. There is no judgement applied regarding the nature of a soldier’s death. No death is considered any more of less ‘honourable’ than any other.”

George added, basically, on most of the other military graves, the families chose not to engrave a regimental badge, so the cross went on top instead.