Lansdowne Veterans Memorial

Lansdowne, Ontario

Type

Other

The Lansdowne Veterans Memorial honours the Fallen and Veterans of Lansdowne and the surrounding area that used to be Front of Leeds and Lansdowne. In the arch at the entrance of the Veterans Garden, four granite plaques bear the names of 30 local men who lost their lives during the two World Wars and Afghanistan. Commemorative stones were set into the ground, engraved with the names of more than 240 area men and women who enlisted in wartime.

Janet Gaylord, a Royal Canadian Legion Branch 92 member, brought a Veterans Memorial Garden to Lansdowne, a project which took 12 years to complete. In 2006, Corporal Randy Payne was killed in Afghanistan. That same year, Gaylord started work on the Garden. She obtained approval, designed a Memorial Garden on school property, and with her family, did much of the work. It includes a large stone, four granite benches, large flower beds, and an interlocking stone display area. Through grants and assistance, she raised more than $30,000 for the memorial.

The students at Thousand Islands Elementary School see the memorial every day. They helped plant tulips from the Dutch Embassy and in the fall of 2020, painted stones of remembrance placed around the commemorative stones.

Inscription

[arch/arche]
VETERANS MEMORIAL
GARDEN

[stone/pierre]
FOR ALL
WHO SERVED

[plaque 1]
IN MEMORY OF ALL
WHO MADE THE SUPREME SACRIFICE
FIRST WORLD WAR
1914-1918

LT (DOCTOR) WILLIAM E BROWN
ROYAL ARMY MEDICAL CORPS

PRIVATE HARRY CLEAVER

PRIVATE MICHAEL J DALTON
20TH BATTALION

LANCE CORPORAL WILLIAM DEIR
10TH BATTALION

PRIVATE JOSEPH E EASTWOOD
38TH BATTALION

PRIVATE HENRY R FERRIS
156TH BATTALION

LANCE CORPORAL WILLIAM W FREW
18TH BATTALION

PRIVATE IVAN A LANDON
52ND BATTALION

PRIVATE CHARLES J MATHEWS
26TH BATTALION

PRIVATE RICHARD L McGIHON
P.P.C.L.I.

PRIVATE CHARLES J MCNAMEE
5TH BATTALION

PRIVATE JOHN J MCNAMEE
5TH BATTALION

DYING IS NOT THE WORST THING
THAT CAN HAPPEN ...
BEING FORGOTTEN IS

[plaque 2]
IN MEMORY OF ALL
WHO MADE THE SUPREME SACRIFICE
SECOND WORLD WAR
1939-1945

FLYING OFFICER ROYDEN BRADLEY
RCAF 166 SQUADRON

PRIVATE JACK DONALD BUELL
1ST CDN PARACHUTE BATTALION

PRIVATE ELMER A CRAWFORD
RCA SERVICE CORPS

FLT SGT IRVINE DONOVAN D.F.M.
RCAF 101 SQUADRON

FLYING OFFICER GORDON K GRIER
RCAF 415 SQUADRON

LANCE SERGEANT MORRIS LAMBERT
ROYAL CANADIAN HORSE ARTILLERY

FLYING OFFICER HUGH C LYNCH
RCAF 404 SQUADRON

GUNNER CHARLES A MASSEY JR
ROYAL CANADIAN ARTILLERY

SERGEANT WILLIAM G McKEE
P.P.C.L.I.

FLT SGT R DOUGLAS W MOULTON
RCAF 100 (RAF) SQUADRON

PRIVATE PATRICK REILLY

PRIVATE DONALD RUNNING
SD&G HIGHLANDERS

PRIVATE BERNARD SANDERS
CAMERON HIGHLANDERS OF CANADA

CORPORAL WALTER A SHERWOOD
RCA SERVICE CORPS

SIGNALMAN WILLIAM L N SIMPSON
RC CORPS OF SIGNALS

CAPTAIN E REGINALD WALDIE
ROYAL CANADIAN ARTILLERY

[plaque 3]
IN MEMORY OF ALL
WHO MADE THE SUPREME SACRIFICE

AFGHANISTAN
2001 - 2014

CPL RANDY JOSEPH PAYNE 2006
RCAF MP CLOSE PROTECTION TEAM

REMEMBER

We must remember.
If we do not,
the sacrifice of those
100,000 Canadian lives
will be meaningless.
They died for us,
for their homes and families
and friends,
for a collection of traditions
they cherished
and a future they believed in;
they died for Canada.
The meaning of their sacrifice
rests with our collective
national consciousness;
our future is their monument.

By Heather Robertson

THE MEN WHOSE NAMES ARE
ENGRAVED ON THESE TABLETS
SACRIFICED THEIR FUTURES
FOR OUR FREEDOMS

TROOPER WILLIAM E WEBSTER
SHERBROOKE FUSILIERS

[plaque 4]
FIRST WORLD WAR
1914 – 1918
---------------------------
YPRES FESTUBERT GIVENCHY
MOUNT SORREL SOMME
VIMY RIDGE SCARPE HILL 70
PASSCHENDAELE
AMIENS
DROCOURT – QUEANT LINE
CANAL DU NORD MONS

SECOND WORLD WAR
1939 – 1945
-----------------------------
BATTLE OF BRITAIN
BOMBER OFFENSIVE
BATTLE OF THE ATLANTIC
GULF OF ST LAWRENCE
HONG KONG DIEPPE ITALY
NORMANDY LIBERATION OF
FRANCE, BELGIUM, NETHERLANDS

KOREA
1951 - 1953

PEACEKEEPING OPERATIONS
1947 - PRESENT

AFGHANISTAN
2001 - 2014

THEY SHALL NOT GROW OLD
AS WE WHO ARE LEFT GROW OLD.
AGE SHALL NOT WEARY THEM,
NOR THE YEARS CONDEMN.
AT THE GOING DOWN OF THE SUN
AND IN THE MORNING,
WE WILL REMEMBER THEM.

LAURENCE BINYON
‘FOR THE FALLEN’