The Memorial Room commemorates the 351 Queen's students and alumni who died in the First and Second World Wars. It features two large bronze plaques inscribed with the names of those who died, a stone altar, stained glass windows, and seven oil paintings of men and women from each branch of the Canadian Forces, painted by Toronto artist Marion Long.
In 1929, Queen’s University inaugurated their student union building, naming it the “Students’ Memorial Union Building” as a war memorial to Queen’s university soldiers. The building was destroyed by fire in 1947, but reconstructed shortly afterwards on the same site. Following extensive renovations and expansions in the mid 1970’s, it was renamed for former Principal John Deutsch, a renaming that has been controversial among some alumni over the years. Nevertheless, the “memorial” function of the student union building was never lost, and was perpetuated over the years through the Memorial Room and Remembrance Room, within the John Deutsch University Centre. The Memorial Room is the original Union building Memorial Hall. Intended as a quiet room where the memory of the fallen would be preserved, it houses the brass scrolls of names of Queen’s university causalities from the armed forces during the First and Second World Wars, a stone altar, stained glass windows, and seven oil paintings of men and women from each branch of the Canadian Forces. The Remembrance Room houses photos of the 177 members of the Queen’s community who died in active service in the Second World War. The room also has a display case holding a Union Jack, and the flag of the Canadian Officers Training Corps, which was an important part of Queen’s life during the Second World War.
