General Vanier Public School
Municipality/Province: Ottawa, ON
Memorial number: 35060-005
Type: School, sign and plaque
Address: 1025 Harkness Avenue
Location: By the Pauline Vanier Park
GPS coordinates: Lat: 45.3671222 Long: -75.6739933
Submitted by: Richard Turcotte
Photo credit: Richard Turcotte
The school was erected by the City of Ottawa Public School Board, and was unveiled on November 21, 1963. It is dedicated to major-General Georges-Philéas Vanier PC, DSO, MC, CD. (1888-1967). Vanier was a Canadian soldier who served as Governor General of Canada. He was born and educated in Quebec. After obtaining a BA and a law degree, he served in the Canadian Army during the First World War on the European battlefields.
In 1918, while leading an attack on the village of Cherisy, he was shot in the chest and both legs, eventually losing one leg to his wounds. Subsequently, Vanier returned to Canada and remained in the military until the early 1930s, when he was posted to diplomatic missions in Europe. With the outbreak of the Second World War, Vanier rejoined toe military, commanding troops on the home front.
In 1942 he was promoted to the rank of major general, and made the Canadian Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to the governments of Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Greece, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, and Yugoslavia, as well as the representative of the Canadian Government to the Free French all of which were governments in exile.
In 1959, he was appointed Governor General of Canada remaining in this post until his death in 1967. Vanier proved to be a popular governor general, with his war record earning respect from Canadians.
Inscription found on memorial
[sign/pancarte]
General Vanier
PUBLIC SCHOOL
1025 HARKNESS AVENUE
OTTAWA-CARLETON
DISTRICT OF SCHOOL BOARD
[plaque/plaque]
CITY OF OTTAWA PUBLIC SCHOOL BOARD
THE GENERAL VANIER PUBLIC SCHOOL
OPENED BY HIS EXCELLENCY
MAJOR-GENERAL THE RT. HON. GEORGES P. VANIER, D.S.O., M.C., C.D.
GOVERNOR GENERAL OF CANADA
NOVEMBER 21ST, 1963
CHARLES H. HULSE, CHAIRMAN
TRUSTEES
(a list of eight names in two columns, but the wording is not clear in the photo/une liste de quatre noms en deux colonnes, mais le texte n' est pas clair sur la photo)
OFFICIALS
(a list of eleven names in two columns, but the wording is not clear in the photo/une liste de onze noms sur deux colonnes, mais le texte n' est pas clair sur la photo)
Street view
Note
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