In 2006, members of the Windsor community raised money for a monument dedicated to reservists from the Windsor-based Essex and Kent Scottish Regiment who took part in the Raid on Dieppe. That monument was erected in Dieppe's Red Beach, France, where the regiment landed and dedicated on August 19, 2006. On January 4, 2010, City of Windsor officials approved construction of a duplicate monument to be built much closer to home in Dieppe Gardens.
The $60,000, 2.4-metre-high monument is made of black granite and features a cutout of a large maple leaf. It was designed and placed so that on August 19 at 1pm — the exact hour that the regiment stormed the beach — if the sun shines, it will cast a perfect shadow of that maple leaf on the stainless steel leaf installed on the ground below. Designer Rory O'Connor, a local art student, thought it would be great to use the sundial idea to tell about the time and retreat of these soldiers. The beach stones around this monument were collected from the beach at Dieppe.
The monument commemorates the Essex and Kent Scottish Regiment's sacrifices in Dieppe, but also those that made it throughout northwest Europe until final victory in 1945. The engineering, construction and fundraising was undertaken by the auspices of The Essex and Kent Scottish by Delta Company, the civilian affiliate of the Regiment.
