Georges Winters, pictured here with his wife Katherine in 2019, has left a lasting legacy with the annual Remembrance ceremonies at the Brantwood Gates. Photo by John Dance
Mainstreeter Staff
Georges Winters, the driving force behind the annual Remembrance ceremonies at the Brantwood Gates, died recently at the age of 79. Although not a resident of Old Ottawa East, he grew up here, living on Glenora Street.
Winters firmly strengthened the local community tradition of honouring those who have served in Canada’s armed forces. For about 20 years, he led the Royal Canadian Legion’s Remembrance ceremony held at the Gates on the Sunday before the national ceremony at the National War Memorial on November 11.
As a long-time member of the Legion’s Strathcona Branch, Winters recruited a great variety of participants for the ceremony, including our elected representatives, cadet corps and members of the Canadian Armed Forces. In addition to organizing the event, he led the proceedings.
After an almost four-year battle with lung cancer, Winters died at home, as he wished. Despite his deteriorating health, Winters still helped organize this past November’s ceremony at the Brantwood Gates and he laid the wreath for the Legion.
During the many years of the existence of the Strathcona Branch, which used to be on Greenfield Avenue, Winters was the branch’s chaplain and part of the executive. He worked for the Canadian Corps of Commissionaires for 32 years. One of his last wishes to his wife Katherine, a constant companion at the many Brantwood ceremonies, was that she continue to support the event with the materials they’d used every year for the event, including the wires to securely hang the wreaths on the Brantwood Gates.
He’s gone but has left a simple and enduring legacy – an annual event for all of us in Old Ottawa East to remember those who have served Canada.
