Newcastle war hero Jim Cassidy deserves plaque

The first time I ever heard the name of James Howard Cassidy, the bravest man I never met, was Thursday afternoon in this office from an RCMP officer from British Columbia.
The officer's name is Cpl. Larry Burden. Originally from Moncton, Burden lives in B.C. and is one of the country's top marine investigators.
In his spare time, he's writing a book about famous RCMP officers in history and landed in Miramichi to research Jim Cassidy.
Here's the story of Jim Cassidy in a nutshell as Burden related it to me.
Jim Cassidy was born in Newcastle in 1912. He went to Harkins, grew up, became an RCMP officer and served for a time in the RCMP marine section in Halifax.
When war broke out, he took a leave from the RCMP and signed up, where he ended up in the Merchant Marine.Cassidy became second officer of the Pink Star, an American vessel flying under a Panamanian flag and crewed by Canadians.
The Pink Star was off the southern tip of Greenland enroute to Iceland in convoy when she was torpedoed on Sept. 19, 1941.
All of her lifeboats were smashed except one. Twelve of the crew of 36 were lost. Those that remained, swimming in the frigid water, scrambled for the safety of the remaining lifeboat.
One of those people was Jim Cassidy.
The captain of the Pink Star, a man named MacKenzie, later told reporters how Cassidy swam up to the lifeboat and saw how overcrowded the small vessel was. The others, knowing full well doing so would endanger them all, reached out to take Cassidy aboard, but he swam out of reach.
"Go on, I'm all right," Cassidy told his shipmates. "So long."
And he swam away into the darkness. And the ocean took him.
"He sacrificed his life so he could save the rest of his crew," Burden said, a look on his face that tough men make when they're fighting off tears.
MacKenzie later told reporters from news agencies all over the world about the bravery of Cassidy.
"It was the finest thing I ever saw."
Reading the words on yellowing 65-year-old newsprint, I can still sense the emotion the old captain's voice must have held when heroes walked the earth and sailed the mighty seas. Cassidy was recommended for the George Cross, the second highest award the British empire gives out for bravery, but never received it. Burden doesn't know why.
He could have been placed on the RCMP honour roll, but wasn't a serving member at the time, so that honour was lost to him as well.
The only record of his heroism, besides a pile of 65-year-old newspaper clippings, is his name carved on the cenotaph in Queen Elizabeth Park in Newcastle.
There are no plaques to his heroics, there are no monuments to his valour.
And why not?
Cassidy was the very definition of a hero, who grew up just down the road and died in the cold, dark ocean off the coast of a far-away land trying to save the lives of the men he served with.
This is the kind of valour that folk singers remember in song. But where are the songs for Cassidy?
A granite cross standing over 12 metres high was was erected over Halifax harbour in 1967. Better late than never.
The cross is mounted on a large podium bearing the names of over 3,000 Canadian men and women who were buried at sea. "Their graves are unknown but their memory shall endure," part of the inscription reads.
So why did I never hear Cassidy's name when I was in school, the very school he went to as a kid?
Burden is angry Cassidy's has never been recognized and after hearing about him, I am too.
"New Brunswick doesn't have very many heroes," Burden said.
"This is a tale of heroism that went unrecorded and a community that failed to recognize someone who should have been recognized."
You would think that there'd at least be a plaque at the local Legion. And there's not. Virtually nobody has heard the story of Jim Cassidy." He throws his hands out in frustration, then shrugs.
"It's typical for the Merchant Marine."
Why isn't there a plaque on the wall of the Legion? Or in the park downtown commemorating the service of a Newcastle man who gave his life for duty and honour, two little words that used to mean so much and are now, much like gaslight and blacksmiths, mere memories of an earlier age.
Lest we forget, they say. But what about those who we've already forgotten?
There must by a politician, be it MP, MLA, or mayor, who can find a couple of hundred bucks to buy this hero a plaque. Anyone? Come on guys. Remembrance Day is just around the corner.