MONTREAL, QC, October 6, 2025 – A unique sculpture featuring dolphins, discovered in January 2025 at a City of Lethbridge recycling facility, marked the beginning of Private Charles Rufus Clarke’s journey to the Last Post Fund’s National Field of Honour, the largest military cemetery in Canada.
Private Clarke’s story symbolizes what is at the very heart of the Last Post Fund’s (LPF) reason of being: to ensure that no Veteran is denied a dignified funeral, burial and military gravestone resulting from insufficient funds at the time of death.
Cremated in March 1995, Private Clarke’s remains were discovered at the recycling facility in an urn to which was still affixed the label by Martin Brothers Funeral Chapel at the time of cremation. Martin Brothers’ records indicated that Mr. Clarke’s wife, Betty, who passed away in 2013, had selected the urn decorated with dolphins and that an annotation of “LAST POST” on the label indicated that Mr. Clarke could be a Veteran.
Further research conducted by Warrant Officer Glenn Miller (Retired), past President of the Alberta/Northwest Territories Branch and the LPF National Office subsequently confirmed that Mr. Clarke had indeed served in the Second World War as a Private with the 5th Battalion, Green Howards Regiment, of the British Army.
Consequently, the urn was transferred to Quebec, with the LPF overseeing the funeral arrangements of Mr. Clarke at National Field of Honour, which included a dignified burial and military marker. See the story here: Award given for locating urn with veteran’s remains | Sep 29/25/Heidi Echavarria | Bridge City News
Private Charles Rufus Clarke’s story is one that elicits profound meaning and underscores the importance of not only recognizing the service and sacrifice of our Veterans, but ensuring dignity, honour and permanence in our remembrance.
The LPF seeks to increase awareness of its mission to properly honour our Veterans and to secure donations in order to address the accumulation of markers waiting to be installed at unmarked graves across Canada. Canadians can honour their military legacy by donating at the individual, organization or corporate level to help recognize these heroes who would otherwise remain forgotten. Volunteer researchers have made great strides in identifying thousands of unmarked Veterans graves across Canada and internationally and more than 8,000 markers have been installed to date through the Unmarked Grave Program.
About the Last Post Fund
The Last Post Fund is a not-for-profit organization established in1909. 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 Veterans’ graves that have been unmarked for more than 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.
