Gzowski | The Queen's Own Rifles of Canada Regimental Museum and Archive

In 2023 Chief Warrant Officer Dean Stokes of the Hastings and Prince Edward Regiment (Hasty P’s) was deployed to England. While there, he very kindly offered to clean the grave monument for QOR Lieutenant Roy Maurice Gzowski, who died of typhoid fever while on the QOR’s trip to England in 1910. He shares the story of what led to this below.

It all started when I asked an old friend (ex 3 Para -WO2 Tommy Simpson) who served with my Dad to do a tour of the Aldershot cemetery. Tommy joined in 1967 and left in 1990 and knew my Dad in the late ’60s. He leads a group of volunteers who travel from all over the UK to help clean and maintain the cemetery. They litter pick, polish brass plates on memorial benches and clean graves.

The cleaning all started with the Parachute Regiment graves then expanded to the Airbornes forces, but now they patrol the whole cemetery which has 17,000 graves. They cannot clean the Commonwealth war graves but they pick up litter, etc. around them. There are over 100 Canadian war graves in this cemetery. Tommy has a great knowledge of the cemetery due to many years of cleaning and research, and I joined this bunch in the monthly cleaning meets.

He gave my department (OP INTERFLEX HQ, the British-led multinational military operation to train and support the Armed Forces of Ukraine) a tour through the Cemetery in August 2023 which highlighted war graves from many allied nations as Aldershot was a main hub of treatment to soldiers from the war in Europe.

There are also graves from The Battle of Rorke’s Drift in 1879, early aviators of flight, and entrepreneurs of business which made it really interesting.

On my first walk around the cemetery with Tommy (on our tour with my HQ) he mentioned I would like the next one! As we walked up the pathway you could see the GZOWSKI memorial. It stood out and looked amazing but as I got closer I could see it was in ill repair. Then he mentioned it was a QOR grave and the history of it to everyone. Straight away I had a plan in my head to clean it up. It would give me a personal project (my wife’s grandfather was in the QOR at D-Day – Rifleman Frank Carleton) and would give me extra focus outside work on this tour. I emailed the then Commanding Officer of the QOR (Lieutenant Colonel Scott Moody) for permission to restore the memorial and he was keen for me to do this.

The grave was overrun with weeds that had broken through the concrete base which had cracked away a lot of material. Additionally, there was a lot of weathering from; granular disintegration, flaking, blistering, contour weathering, pitting, and black crust, but mostly organic forms. There was significant weathering to the words on 2 sides of the memorial from the elements and I wanted to preserve what was inscribed as much as I could. I did some research on Terracotta stone and then purchased Terracotta cleaner, scrapers and a brush with Terracotta oil. I wanted to ensure I bought the right products so that I didn’t make the stone more susceptible to weathering.

For several Saturdays of weeding and cleaning, I started to see some real change. Tommy also gave me some organic cleaner spray which is specifically used for organic issues, which was applied monthly to allow the chemicals to do their work.

After some time and a pause due to freezing conditions, Captain Frazer Clarke from 2 CER and I cleaned out the soil and weeds within the monument to allow us to cement. We used 20 kgs of cement and then pushed pea stones into the fresh cement to maintain the look. Further to that I then laid 80 kgs of pea stones which I thought would make a fresher and more dynamic look but most importantly reduce the opportunity for weeds to come through.

The final touch was the oil ( which acts as a preserver) which I applied one coat to the memorial to soak in over time and preserve not just the wording from the elements but the unique colouring from organic overgrowth. There is still half a tin of oil left which Captain Don Perry -2 Royal Canadian Regiment (my replacement) will apply in the summer of 2024 before he leaves from tour.

Tommy Simpson has commented on how amazing the transformation looks and he has promised to upkeep the standard for me in years to come. I hope to go to the UK this year and visit the cemetery to follow up on the cleaning and also to brass my Dad’s plate on one of the memorial benches.

On Remembrance Day I asked the OC of our Training Team in Lydd if he would allow some soldiers to come to Aldershot to help out in the cemetery and lay over 100 Canadian flags at the base of the graves of our fallen. Four soldiers arrived early on the day and laid the flags. I bought 3 wreaths (CAF, QOR and Hasty P’s.) I got Captain Toffan to lay the QOR’s wreath, a young corporal to Lay the CAF one and I laid my regiment’s wreath. There were hundreds of locals present as well as the Garrison Commander. Tommy will lay the wreaths each year for me.

Cleaning the grave and getting it to look good not just for remembrance day but for years to come, so fellow Canadians and the community can pay their respects and appreciate our freedom, has been a humbling experience.