This memorial was erected in memory of Private Wellesley Alexander Hull. It should be noted that Wellesley Alexander Hull's name is variously spelled "Wellesley", "Welsley" or "Wesley", in different documents.
Wellesley Alexander Hull was born in January 1873 and grew up in a prominent family of Billings Bridge, a small village that was located near the present-day intersection of Bank Street and Riverside Drive in Ottawa. As a young man, he joined the 43rd Rifles, a militia unit based in Ottawa. He later transferred to the Princess Louise Dragoon Guards. He deployed to South Africa, as part of the first contingent of the Canadian Mounted Rifles, arriving in Cape Town in February 1900. Hull took part in the Battalion's early operations, but fell ill and died on June 7, 1900. Wellesley Alexander Hull is buried at the Kroonstad Garden of Remembrance, next to the Kroonstad hospital on Du Toit Street, South Africa.
This memorial was originally located next to the Orangemen's Lodge at the intersection of Bank Street and Riverside Drive, in the then village of Billings Bridge. In 1960, it was removed to allow for the widening of Riverside Drive and was placed in storage until 1997. After numerous petitions from the Lodge members, the City of Ottawa rededicated the monument at St. George's Hawthorne Anglican Cemetery, as many Hull family members are interred there.
