Meet the man who tends the Commonwealth War Graves cemetery in Gander - Action News
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Meet the man who tends the Commonwealth War Graves cemetery in Gander

Just outside of Gander, 100 bodies are laid to rest at a Commonwealth War Graves cemetery in North America.
Joe Gilmore, a rescue pilot from Ireland, died in a plane crash in 1945. (Leigh Anne Power/CBC)

Just outside of Gander, 100 bodies are laid to rest at aCommonwealth War Graves cemetery in North America.

Gander resident Dunley Peyton spent his summers as a teenager cutting the grass on the graves, starting when he was 13yearsold.

He was employed by hisfather,a flower shop owner who alsodid landscaping around the airport.

After spending years amongthe headstones, Peytondecided to research the history of the people resting there.

"Everyone has a story," he told Central Morning Show hostLeigh Anne Power, as he showed her around.

"When you read all the names they're just ordinary, but on the bottom there's the inscription that the family put there. If you read them all it kind of softens you up, because some of them say the name of their wife and daughter waiting for them."

There are 100 people resting at the Commonwealth War Graves cemetery, just outside of Gander. (Leigh Anne Power/CBC)

The cemetery includes the graves of 19 people in the Royal Air Force Ferry Command who died when an aircraft crashed near Gander during a snowstorm in 1943.

Some of them say things like, 'He gave his today for your tomorrow,'which I find kind of cuts you right to the bone- Dunley Peyton

There's also the headstone of Joe Gilmore, a rescue pilot from Ireland who died in a crash near Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island.

"Gilmore's headstone is different, because he was awarded an M.B.E.Member of the British Empire," said Peyton.

Peyton is now making it his mission to pave the half-kilometreof road from the highway to the war graves, so that more people can easily visit the site.

"Some of them say things like, 'He gave his today for your tomorrow,'which I find kind of cuts you right to the bone," said Peyton.

"And it reminds me of what all these people stand for."

Corrections

  • A previous version of this story had said Gander is the site of the only Commonwealth War Graves cemetery in North America. That is not correct.
    Nov 12, 2015 1:53 PM NT