The Cobourg Legion Branch 133 held their grand opening on Saturday, August 27, 2022.
The ceremony on Orr Street where the new Legion resides is directly across from where the former Legion stood for over six decades.
Legion President of Ontario Provincial Command Derek Moore said on November 6, 1928, “a Legion branch was born.”
Branch 133 of the British Empire Services League as it was known then.
“Today we are gathered here to celebrate a re-birth which we all sincerely hope will carry this Legion forward for another 94 years at the very least.”
Moore said it was a “difficult birth starting with meetings in 2012.”
Members of the Cobourg Legion Pipes and Drums performed throughout the ceremonies that lasted just over an hour.
Special guest, Colonel (Retired) Andrew Cook who was born and raised in Cobourg and went on to serve in the Royal Canadian Air Force which included becoming a member of the 431 Air Demonstration Squadron, also known as the Snowbirds.
Cook’s speech spoke on every aspect of Cobourg and those who grew up and Today’s Northumberland would like to share the entirety of his speech.
“Great to be home in Cobourg
When I say home – I really mean it. Let me tell you why:
My father and mother – Dave and Dorothy Cook – left Scotland in 1954 after growing up in wartime Britain to seek a new life in Canada. My father – an auto mechanic to trade – started in Toronto looking for work and slowly made his way east. Ultimately, his brother in law – Al Blair – who had already made Cobourg home – told my father that there was good work to be found here and that is where the Cooks’ story of Cobourg begins. My mother emigrated after my father got settled here and the two Luke sisters Allison and Dorothy found work here too – first in the Toronto Bank (or was it the Dominion?) on Division St. Later, both sisters became well established here too – Allie as she was known ran the General Foods Employees Credit Union for eons and Dorothy was a fixture of Thomas Gilbard and later C.R. Gummow schools, while Dave worked at General Foods and Al Blair worked at Westinghouse in that other town we from Cobourg don’t acknowledge too often but is just down the highway toward Toronto! 🙂
Most important to this story though is that Cobourg welcomed these Scots immigrants and gave them a strong sense of community. And in return, like the Legion, they tried to give back to that community.
Dave worked with 598 Sabre Squadron and the St John Ambulance. He was very active in working toward the building of Cobourg’s new hospital and loved this community. The Sifton Cook Heritage Centre beside us bears his name as a testament to his commitment to Cobourg. Al was a fixture in the Northumberland Players and the Cobourg Concert Band and was famous for welcoming most of Cobourg to his home every Boxing Day for some very memorable open houses – which many of his guests probably didn’t remember very much of the next day thanks to Al’s hospitality! 🙂
And for kids like my cousin Anne Blair and for me – growing up in Cobourg in the late 60s and 70s we felt very welcome. It was a wonderful time for which I cannot thank Cobourg enough.
But there with us growing up – with concerts in Victoria Park, with the summers at the beach, with the Centennial pool, with the great dramatic productions of Arsenic and Old Lace, and My Fair Lady, with the always-dependably rainy Highland Games and the Cobourg Cougars’ 1973 championship and the myriad of baseball tournaments and the “Kilties” – with everything that made Cobourg special – was Branch 133.
As an Air Cadet here I have many fond memories of Roast Beef and Yorkshire Pudding dinners with Apple Pie and cheddar cheese for desert, of Annual Inspections here in the parking lot on Orr Street – of seeing not one but two Victoria Cross winners (Charlie Rutherford and John Foote) every Remembrance Day at the Cenotaph along with other memorable veterans like George Hees and Gordon King.
I remember Cobourg as a military town with our 26 Canadian Ordnance Depot (or the Depot as we all called it) and 33rd Medium Regiment and 14 Field Battery and those men and women of the Greatest Generation who served in both wars and did the most extraordinary things that a society can ask of its citizens – and who returned home here to their community to serve it as they had their country – because that is just what one should do. And many of these people joined Branch 133 and continued giving – they embodied service and they set an example for us all.
And the Legion – which achieved the great things it has by celebrating and drawing upon the comradeship of its members – was here for it all – our brightest days and our toughest moments – but all the while continuing to give back to this community.
But Legion Branch 133, like many of its members, began to age a little and it became apparent that the building on Orr Street would need to be replaced. Again the membership dug deep and faced the many bureaucratic and logistical hurdles (and I can speak of bureaucratic hurdles because, as a fairly senior public servant I see them regularly!) and faced those hurdles with the determination that has always put fear in the hearts Canada’s enemies and inspired her citizens. For several years Branch 133 – with support from Provincial Command and the Ontario Trillium Foundation, but most importantly with the rolled-up sleeves of the Branch’s membership themselves – worked toward the event for which we all gather here today – the building of a newer Legion to meet the changing needs of the membership and usher new members into tomorrow’s Legion here – just across the street from yesterday’s facility and beside one of Cobourg’s oldest.
I still have fond memories of the Legion of my childhood – and while this building may be different, the Legion’s central tenet of comradeship is as present and comforting and relevant today as it ever was.
Today’s Legion continues to serve not just veterans but all members of its local community. And with the addition of a beautiful new building like this I know that Branch 133 will continue serving this community – which I am so very proud to call my home – for decades to come.
As a very proud member of the Legion myself I would like to thank you again for inviting me here today and I would also like to wish the membership the very best in this wonderful new building.
I look forward to seeing how the Branch 133 continues to serve Cobourg in the future.
But don’t give up on all the traditions of the old building with the creation of this new one – I hope there will still be the odd Roast Beef dinner served by the Ladies Auxiliary in future. And if I see a table in the bar area with a bull figure and mini shovel suspended above it, I will really feel at home!
Comradeship kept Canada free when she was threatened by two World Wars, in Korea, and in my case in the Afghanistan theatre. It built our society and it built and sustains this and every other Legion in this great nation. Since comradeship is rooted in service, I would like to thank Branch 133 for everything it has given to Cobourg in the decades since its inception and for the service it provides now and will continue to give this great community in the decades ahead.
Thank you”
Author: Pete Fisher
Has been a photojournalist for over 30-years and have been honoured to win numerous awards for photography and writing over the years. Best selling author for the book Highway of Heroes - True Patriot Love
