Katelyn Handren

Feeling of Home

The feeling of sadness
Frustration and madness
Family at home
They feel all alone
They may not return
Which is a great concern
For the warriors who fought for our freedom.

Katelyn Handren
Kaylene McQuaid
Jamie MacDonald

They Fought for Us

They fought all night
To the left and right.
They fought all day
All Canadians going the same way.
They fought in the rain
Most of them in pain.
They fought in the snow
Wondering where to go.
They fought in the glaring sun
Each of them holding a gun.
They fought for our freedom.


Frank Holburn

My great, great grandfather, Frank Holburn was from Windsor, Nova Scotia and he moved to Saint John, New Brunswick as a young man.  He got married and had two children then went to war at the age of 21.  He served in the army for five years and all of The First World War.  He was originally a member of the 115th battalion and then the 26th battalion in France.  He was gassed during the war and fought as a private in the battle of  Vimy Ridge.

After the war he returned to Saint John and had two more children and one of them was my great grandmother, Mary Handren.  Frank Holburn died because of a lung problem caused by the mustard gas.  He died at the age of 33, seven years after the war.  He was buried at the Fern Hill Cemetery in Saint John with a soldiers stone.