ENFIELD: A plaque in memory of a local Sub Lieutenant who died in the CH-148 Cyclone helicopter in late April 2020 was unveiled last week in a moving ceremony.
Sub Lt. Matt Pyke was one of the six crew members that died when the Cyclone helicopter they were aboard crashed into the Mediterranean Sea on April 29 during a training mission.
The helicopter was aboard HMCS Fredericton and was S/Lt. Pyke’s first deployment.
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At the Enfield Legion monument by St. Bernard’s Church, a small crowd of family and friends join Legion members for the tribute ceremony and plaque unveiling.
The plaque has S/Lt. Pyke’s name engraved on it and faces towards Hwy 2 and RSI Dance Works building (the old E.H. Horne School building). Pyke, who lived in Grand Lake at the time with fiancée Helen Hines, was a former East Hants volunteer firefighter in Rawdon and Gore.
A march in by the colour party began the ceremony, followed by the traditional ceremony procedures and then the placing of a wreath.
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Following the placing of the wreath people were able to place their poppies on the wreath. A young girl who represented the youth also placed a poppy on the wreath with help from a Legion member.
The last poppy placed was by S/Lt. Pyke’s father, as he knelt down put the poppy on the wreath and stared right at the monument.
He also placed his ballcap under =neath the plaque.
Following the ceremony, those in attendance were invited back to the Legion for a social and to remember S/Lt. Pyke.
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Hines said her and Pyke had attended a few things at the Legion before he deployed and during the 2019 Poppy Campaign.
“If you knew Matty then you know the kind of impression he made on people,’ said Hines in an interview with The Laker News. “The Legion members he met were no different and that’s really what has brought us to this honour.
“They knew his passion about service and his intention of joining the legion when he came back to help educate people on the military and everything involved with that.”
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She said the Legion approached them about adding him to the Enfield cenotaph.
“We were very honoured by the request,” said Hines. “The Enfield cenotaph has been my home cenotaph my entire life, and with Matty moving to Grand Lake with me, it was his home cenotaph at the time of his death.”
“We spent his last Remembrance Day there and at the Enfield Legion, honouring the ultimate sacrifice of so many.”
