War Memorials
Raising funds for a war memorial
After the Second World War, Shawnigan Lake School in British Columbia launched a campaign to raise money for scholarships and improvements to the school, to honour former students who had been killed while in uniform.
Memorial windows in Dundas
Just a year after the end of the First World War, the Methodist Church in Dundas, Ontario, unveiled two splendid stained-glass windows in honour of its war dead.
"God bless our noble womenfolk"
This song looking back at the war from 1921 was unusual in giving equal attention to its impact on women as well as men.
Make your own sailor's memorial
Distributed with an illustrated magazine, this memorial scroll could accommodate various sizes of photographs, and had a space where the sailor's name and rank could be recorded.
Dundas Methodists remember
Methodist Church superintendent Rev. S.D. Chown was on hand as the congregation in Dundas, Ontario, dedicated its war memorial plaque in 1920.
A dance for the memorial
In 1949, students at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, held a Valentine's Day dance to raise funds for the institution's Second World War memorial.
A war memorial in progress
In 1928, prime minister Mackenzie King visited the studio of sculptor Vernon March in England to inspect the progress of the National War Memorial.
A war memorial sculptor at work
At his studio in Farnborough, England, in 1927, Vernon March works on the figures that will be mounted on the top of the National War Memorial in Ottawa.
Honouring the dead of Toronto
A huge crowd gathered to witness the unveiling of Toronto's war memorial, in front of City Hall, in 1935.
The passing of a King
Children watch as the cenotaph in Windsor, Ontario, is draped with flags and bunting to mark the 1936 death of King George V, who led the British Empire through the First World War.
Lord Byng in Edmonton
Canada's governor-general, Lord Byng of Vimy, examines the newly unveiled war memorial in Edmonton, Alberta, on 10 April 1922.
The Chemainus war memorial
The small cenotaph honouring the seven men of Chemainus, British Columbia, who were killed in the First World War was unveiled in 1921.
Yarmouth remembers its dead
On 9 June 1923, the war memorial honouring the dead of the town and county of Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, was unveiled, with the names of more than 170 local men and women who had died in uniform during the First World War.
Canadian War Memorials Exhibition Program
The Canadian Government commissioned artists across the Dominion to document both the Canadian Expeditionary Force overseas, and the impact of the war at home. Many of this war art became part of a traveling exhibit organized by the Canadian War Memorials Fund.
War Memorial, Dundas, Ontario
The monument in Dundas honoured the dead of the South African War as well as the First World War, and featured a soldier figure by sculptor Hamilton MacCarthy.
War Memorial Children's Hospital
The War Memorial Children's Hospital of London, Ontario, opened in 1921, issued a report and plea for donations each year.
Souvenir of the Vimy Pilgrimage
A Canadian veteran travelling to the unveiling of the memorial at Vimy Ridge bought this souvenir on board the SS Montrose while en route to France.
A Vimy Pilgrim writes home
In 1936, a Canadian veteran sent this postcard to a friend in Windsor, Ontario, to describe the unveiling of the memorial on the site of the Battle of Vimy Ridge.
Bridgetown, Nova Scotia, war memorial
The Royal Canadian Legion branch in Bridgetown, Nova Scotia, unveiled its war memorial at this service in 1937.
Colours of the 115th Battalion
The last act in the life of a military unit is the laying up of its colours, an honour that is done with great ceremony.