One of the most unique war memorials is the Nanaimo Empire Days Celebration Society's May Queen Crown. In 1918, the local May Queen winner dedicated her speech to the “men serving overseas in the First World War”. Then in 1925, Veterans of the Great War donated a sterling silver crown to the Empire Days society to be used for the May Queen coronation. It was designed and created by Nanaimo jeweler J. Thorneycroft. The original inscription on the crown read: “Dedicated in Perpetual Remembrance of the men who fell in the Great War, 1914-1918. Nanaimo District.”
By 1992 the crown was getting fragile so Branch 10, Royal Canadian Legion retired it and donated a new one. It was crafted by Branch 10 Comrade and jeweler William Proctor. For many years the Empire Days festival incorporated the Navy in the ceremonies to remember the sacrifices made. In 1995, Captain Jack Patten, Aide de Camp and a party of Canadian Scottish Regiment Veterans, took May Queen Alison Kenward and the new crown on a pilgrimage to the battlefields of the First World War. The battlefields of Ypres, Passchendaele, Menin Gate and other historic sites were visited. A solemn ceremony, with piper, cadets and Veterans ensured that the current generation remembered the sacrifices of the previous ones.
