Veteran finally laid to rest

By Lethbridge Herald on October 2, 2025.

Last Post Fund (LPF) Photo Second World War Veteran Private Rufus Clarke received a dignified burial and a military marker acknowledging his service, after an urn containing his remains was found by a City of Lethbridge employee at the city waste and recycling plant where he worked.

Joe Manio
Lethbridge Herald
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Second World War veterans are the generation Tom Brokaw famously dubbed “The Greatest Generation” for their resilience and contributions during the Great Depression and the Second World War. 

As most of them are now centenarians, their numbers are dwindling, and thousands lie in unmarked graves in Canada. A number that organizations and individuals are working to correct by ensuring they receive dignified resting places and military markers.

On Sept. 27, the Last Post Fund (LPF) presented Certificates of Appreciation to City of Lethbridge employee Eugene Wilson and Martin Brothers Funeral Chapels for their roles in in enabling LPF to honour Second World War veteran Private Rufus Clarke for his service with a dignified burial and military marker. 

“It was important to engage the regimental family through Steve Erskine, a researcher of The Green Howards Museum in the United Kingdom. His access to records has provided background and insight of Private Clarke’s remarkable service,” said Glenn Miller, director of the Alberta/Northwest Territories Branch of the Last Post Fund (LPF).

Volunteer researchers have made great strides in identifying numerous unmarked veterans’ graves across Canada and internationally.

In January, Wilson identified what he first thought was a unique sculpture at the Lethbridge waste recycling facility, where he works. The item contained three brass dolphins against a blue wave background, measuring about 12 inches in height. 

Wilson’s initial action was to check for the artist’s name by turning it over and looking at

the base of the sculpture. What he found instead, much to his amazement, was that it was an urn, to which was still affixed the label by Martin Brothers Funeral Chapel at time of cremation. 

The contents were the cremains of Charles Rufus Clarke, who was cremated on 9 March 1995. Wilson then informed his supervisor, who turned the urn over to Martin Brothers Funeral Chapel.

Martin Brothers’ records indicated that Clarke’s wife, Betty, had selected the urn of dolphins and that an annotation beside her name stated “LAST POST,” indicating that Mr. Clarke could be a veteran. 

Martin Brothers, in turn, contacted Miller. Further research conducted by the LPF National Office subsequently confirmed that Clarke had indeed served in the Second World War as a private with the 5th Battalion, Green Howards Regiment, of the British Army.

Miller then transported the urn to the LPF executive director who oversaw the internment of Clarke’s remains at National Field of Honour at Point Claire Québec and with a military grave marker. Sadly, Clarkes’ wife Betty died in 2013, and many of Clarke’s relatives have also passed.

One of the goals of the LPF is to increase awareness of its mission and to secure donations in order to address the accumulation of markers waiting to be installed at unmarked graves across Canada. 

The LPF is a not-for-profit organization established in 1909. Its mission is to ensure that no Veteran is denied a dignified funeral, burial and gravestone, due to insufficient funds at the time of death. 

The Fund’s mandate is to deliver, free of charge, the Veterans Affairs Canada Funeral and Burial Program, which provides funeral, burial and grave marking benefits for eligible Canadian and Allied Veterans. 

The Unmarked Grave Program provides military markers for unmarked veterans’ graves after five years. In March 2019, the Indigenous Veterans Initiative was launched in an effort to commemorate and honour the memory of Indigenous Veterans, many of whom are believed to lie in unmarked graves.