The residents of Dunnville wanted to commemorate the soldiers who had fought overseas in the First World War. William Fry, publisher of the Dunnville Chronicle, obtained the property on John Street between Lock and Broad, formerly owned by the late Judge Swayze. Dunnville Mayor B. Edgscombe and businessman turned politician Frank R. Lalor were approached and Lalor used $5,000 he had earned as a Member of Parliament to purchase the property.
On October 15, 1920, he turned the deed over to the Dunnville Women’s Patriotic Society. One stipulation was that the property was to be used as a public hospital to be called Haldimand War Memorial Hospital in memory of the brave soldiers who gave their lives in the war. The hospital was opened on February 3, 1920 with just 20 beds, a small nursery, a small operating room, and a portable x-ray machine.
