On Remembrance Day, Nov. 11, a rain-drenched service at the Fort 91Ô­´´ cemetery marked the 25th anniversary of the event, with thousands surrounding the cenotaph.

It all started in 1999 when Canadian naval veteran Gordon "Gordy" Gillard discovered there was no service.

"I came down here to lay a wreath on the cenotaph with a buddy of mine," Gillard told interviewer Jef Gibbons in a 2010 video.

"His grandfather was laid here. He said, 'Gordy, would you come along and lay the wreath with me?' Because there's nobody else going to be there, or at least he didn't think. So we came down, he was the only one that had a wreath, and we laid the wreath on the cenotaph for him."

Gillard went home and started phoning people, asking why there was no service at Fort 91Ô­´´, one of the oldest cemeteries in Western Canada. 

He recalled how long-time Fort 91Ô­´´ resident, community volunteer and businesswoman Brenda Alberts suggested they could lay a wreath together.

"When I came down, she had a wreath, and she laid it on the cenotaph. That was the first wreath that was put on there by an outside person other than myself."

By the time of the interview, the event had grown to attract more than 1,200.

"It's been a real success," Gillard said, emphasizing it could not have happened without the hard work of Alberts.

"I couldn't have done what she's done. And I really appreciate her because she's a beautiful person, and willing to help."

Gillard now lies at rest with the other veterans in the Fort 91Ô­´´ cemetery, behind the cenotaph in the veterans section

His daughters, Debbie Coleman and Kelly Billings, were among the thousands of visitors at the 25th Fort 91Ô­´´ service.

Debbie recalled her father using a toothbrush to carefully clean the cenotaph back when it was a small event.

"He'd be down there, he'd be nagging whoever [looked after the cemetery] to get the leaves cleaned,."

She said her father's success in establishing a Remembrance Day was "very redeeming for him. He was able to stand for something that he believed in and see it grow. And every year, watching the numbers grow, just really inspired him."

Kelly remembers her father coming back from that first visit.

"He was so mad that there was nothing in the birthplace of B.C. that he was just horrified and angered, because it was pretty important to him," she recalled.

"He just felt it was so important for young people to know, and for it to keep going so people wouldn't forget."

Both praised the late Brenda Alberts for taking up the cause.

Remembrance Day in Fort 91Ô­´´

— 91Ô­´´ Advance Times (@91Ô­´´Times)

On the 25th anniversary of the event that Gillard got started, Leonard and Amparo Smith from South Surrey, with friends Len Hiebert and Mercedes Fontalvo from 91Ô­´´ City were in attendance.

"My father [Elmer Hiebert] served as a Merchant Marine," Hiebert recalled.

"I remember the stories he told me about crossing the North Atlantic, with the U-boats all around, sinking, his buddies' freighters."

Smith's father, John Henry Peterson Smith, was a flight instructor during the Second World War, 

"It's respect and actual remembrance of all the soldiers and everything they did," Smith said of the memorial service, "and all the people that died, so that we could have the life we have here."

Andy Schildhorn, who chairs the Fort 91Ô­´´'s Remembrance Day committee, called it an "amazing initiative" by Gillard.

"I think the community as a whole can be very proud that this takes place," Schildhorn said.

The Fort 91Ô­´´ Remembrance Day service is a joint effort of the Fort 91Ô­´´ Remembrance Day Committee and the Fort 91Ô­´´ Lions Club.

The committee is an all-volunteer group that has funding from Veterans Affairs Canada and 91Ô­´´ Township.

This year, the Township also cleaned and repainted the engraved lettering on the cenotaph to make the words stand out.