The Where They Called Home sign project in Sarnia identifies where fallen soldiers once lived and provides commemorative signs to be placed on the boulevard in front of their former residence.Photography provided by Sarnia's War Fallen: Where They Called Home

In the fall of 2023, Doug Woods of Sarnia, Ont., was visiting his singer-songwriter son, Donovan, in Toronto. The son told his father he had something he wanted to show him on the street.

Affixed to a utility pole was an 8.5-by-11-inch laminated sheet of paper. On it was the name of a Canadian soldier who had died fighting for his country. As a young man, the soldier had lived in the same house in which Donovan was now living. The small, rudimentary poster included details like the address where the soldier lived, as well as other facts about his service and ultimate fate.

John Paithouski with the memorial sign for his father, Michael, whose corvette HMCS Shawinigan was torpedoed by U-1228 in the Cabot Strait in November, 1944.

When Mr. Woods returned home, he told a curling buddy, Tom St. Amand, about the notice on the pole. What did he think about doing something similar in Sarnia?

Mr. St. Amand was on board. As it turned out, he knew that a former teaching colleague at St. Patrick’s High School, Tom Slater, was deep into a personal research project he began in 2012 to identify........

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