For 79 years, William A. Stevenson, a veteran of the First World War, has been buried in New Westminster B.C.'s Fraser Cemetery with nothing to mark his grave site.

Now, after a local funding campaign raised thousands of dollars this past year, Stevenson finally has a grave marker with his name on it.

"It's important to give him his legacy to let people know his story," said Robert Rathbun, president the Society of the Honourable Guard, which promotes awareness of veterans.

A ceremony was held on Nov. 3, 2018 to dedicate the grave marker for William A. Stevenson, a First World War veteran, who was buried at Fraser Cemetery in 1939 with no marker. (Cliff Shim/CBC)

Rathbun said Stevenson fought for the Canadian Mounted Rifles in the First World War and returned to New Westminster after the conflict ended. He lived at 315 Columbia Street and died in 1939 at the age of 55.

He was originally from Ireland and had no family in Canada to pay for his funeral. The cost was borne by the Canadian Pension Board, but there was no money for a marker on his grave.

Six years ago, the Society of the Officers of the Honourable Guard launched a program which brings children and youth to the cemetery to help them learn about the lives of veterans buried there. (Cliff Shim/CBC)

The Society of the Honourable Guard runs a program that has school children and youth tend the grave sites by cleaning and maintaining them.

"They've always questioned, 'Why are there no stones on some of these graves?'" he said.

The grave marker for Stevenson was dedicated in a ceremony on Saturday.