War Memorials

One municipality, forty-four dead

The unveiling ceremony for this rural Manitoba war memorial included scripture readings, a song by local schoolchildren, an address by the provincial premier, and a reading of John McCrae's poem "In Flanders Fields."

Morden WM.pdf (13.55 MB)
Morden WM.pdf (13.55 MB)

Remembering in Pilot Mound

Veterans in Pilot Mound, Manitoba, organized this annual service to honour the dead of the First World War.

A war memorial altar

As part of the ceremonies marking the Diamond Jubilee of Confederation in 1927, the future King Edward VIII dedicated the altar in the Memorial Chamber, a national war memorial in the newly rebuilt Houses of Parliament. The altar would later be the resting place of the Books of Remembrance, listing all of Canada's war dead.

From memorial to playground

Captured German artillery pieces were sent to Canada as war trophies after the First World War. Intended to act as monuments, they often became playthings for children.

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.

Dundas Meth Ch.pdf (18.21 MB)

"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.

Sweetheart.pdf (5.75 MB)