A First World War German Maxim Spandau 7.92-mm machine gun sits on top of the Douglas War Memorial. It was erected by Veterans and friends to commemorate comrades killed in the First World War and unveiled by Brigadier-General H. D. B. Ketchen at a ceremony on 17 November 1922. The memorial was made of stone and is approximately 8 feet high.
There are several verses on the memorial. One verse is a modified version of a speech about the Wars of the Roses, from Nicholas Rowe’s early-18th century play Jane Shore. Another, a poem by Canon Scott, printed in the Carp, Ontario Review in 1921, addresses a common source of debate around war memorials: should they honour only the dead, or all who served?
Captured guns—war trophies from the front, were collected throughout the war. Dominion Archivist, Sir Arthur Doughty, recorded where and which unit the artillery had been taken, and where they ended up. He received hundreds of requests for guns to use on memorials; by the time he was finished, 3,450 German guns were in use beside, on, or even as memorials across the country. Most have disappeared, some having rotted or been removed for safety reasons. Many others were melted down during the Second World War.
