Young volunteers step forward to take over placing flags on graves of fallen veterans

For 25 years Clay Leduc spent hours placing flags. The Beckett family, including a number of youth, have stepped forward to take over the job each year as Remembrance Day nears

November 3, 2025, 11:11 am
Kara Kinna

Shannon Beckett and Ella Beckett Dodsworth placing a flag on the gravestone of Victoria Cross winner Sergeant Harry Mullin.

For 25 years, Clay Leduc has been placing flags on the grave stones of service members at the Moosomin South Cemetery, the North Cemetery, and Sunset Memorial Gardens. It’s a big job, but this year, on Sunday, October 26, the job changed hands, with the Beckett family of Moosomin stepping in to take it over.

“I started doing this before I was a Legion member, and I came out on Remembrance Day just to pay my respects,” said Leduc on a grey day at the South Cemetery as he met the Becketts to show them how to find the graves of service members.

Shannon Beckett and Clara Dodsworth placing flags

“I had found out talking to my employer Garry Towler, who is a Legion member, that the members who were doing it prior were starting to get up in age, and it hadn’t been done in a number of years. So I talked with the Legion and the town and got the maps and names.”

Leduc has been placing flags at the headstones of fallen service members every year since 2002. But this year will be his last.

“This year, the Beckett family approached me about taking over laying the flags. For me it’s always been pretty personal because my grandfather served in World War II and was wounded, but was able to survive and make it home. My father served 27 years as an RCMP officer, and so I’ve always seen it as another way I can serve my community,” he said.

Saying a few words and a moment of silence before placing the flags. From left are Clara Dodsworth, Shannon Beckett, Brian Beckett, Ella Dodsworth Beckett, and Clay Leduc.

“Recognizing and honouring the veterans of the First and Second World Wars, and subsequent wars that come, is a way that we can actively show the community that we still remember them. To have today’s youth approach and ask me if they can take this up is incredible, because most of our older generation is worried that there won’t be somebody to do it. That active remembrance from our youth is phenomenal. It makes me incredibly proud to know that we still have that in our community.”

One of the main organizers in the Beckett family who is taking over the laying of the flags is Grade 12 student Ella Beckett Dodsworth.

She says that her initiative comes from wanting to learn more about her own family’s history in the military.

Beau Beckett placing a flag while Brian Beckett watches.

“I have a lot of family members who have served, and I don’t know as much about it as I would like to, so I thought that this would be a good way to both learn about it, and pay my respects. Clay has been doing this for a long time, so I approached him asking if I could help. Now we’re looking for more people who might be willing to help honour those we’ve lost.

“We’ve also been getting the idea across to the Student Representative Council at McNaughton. We’re looking to take a day or two to plan it out and then get some people to come do it. There are quite a few people on the SRC interested in helping. I know Mrs. Bochek is very happy to hear about it. This year we still want to keep it small and have a few people come out to help and pay their respects,” she said.

Some of the gravestones of fallen service members including the grave stone of a member of the Royal Northwest Mounted police, at right, from a time when there was a jail in Moosomin and they used to bring prisoners to the town.

She says it’s important that the memory of those who served the country and gave their lives continues to live on.

“It seems that as time goes on, a lot of stuff seems to get forgotten, or almost pushed to the side for other issues. This is something that will always be important, and we always want to make sure that these heroes are remembered.”

Beckett Dodsworth says that she hopes that other youth can see the importance of paying their respects and honouring the fallen.

“I hope that it helps others see the significance of it, and even if it doesn’t, I hope that it shows others that veterans are being respected and remembered for their sacrifice.”

Leduc and the Beckett family have roughly 147 headstones to lay flags on.
“Most people think that it’s just the one section, but there are a number of others spread out throughout the South Cemetery,” said Leduc.

There are also another 25 graves at the North Cemetery, and a handful at Sunset Memorial Gardens.

“Since Moosomin was home to a battalion in both the First and Second World Wars, there were many veterans that, when they died, they chose to come here to be buried. So some of the graves that you see are of those that died overseas and had their bodies brought back to be buried here,” he said.

Clay Leduc getting ready to place a flag.

“Others have had headstones erected in their hometown, but have been buried oversees. Primarily it is veterans of the First and Second World Wars here, as well as members of the RCMP and even members of the Royal Northwest Mounted Police that are given the honour of a flag placed at their headstone. Legion members who have served active duty are also paid that respect.”

Moosomin was the garrison for the 217th Qu’Appelle Battalion of the Canadian Expeditionary Force and the 95th Saskatchewan Regiment for The Great War.