Twillingate Cenotaph

This memorial was erected by Royal Canadian Legion Branch No. 21 in memory of the local men and women who served during the First and Second World Wars and the Korean War. The first War Memorial in Twillingate was the original Notre Dame Bay Memorial Hospital. Movement for construction of the hospital began at a public meeting held at the Court House in Twillingate in 1918 as the First World War was coming to an end. Many men from Notre Dame Bay had lost their lives in the war and, besides fulfilling the great need for medical facilities; the hospital would also serve as a memorial to those gallant young men. Construction got under way in June, 1921, on the south side of Twillingate Harbour and the hospital was officially opened by Governor W.L Allardyce on September 20, 1924. Over the next 52 years, the hospital served thousands of people, not only from the immediate area, but also from other areas of Newfoundland. In 1976, it was replaced by an ultra-modern facility which is also known as the Notre Dame Bay Memorial Hospital. After the old hospital was dismantled in 1981, Twillingate Branch 21 of the Royal Canadian Legion spearheaded a drive to have a War Memorial erected on the same site. This drive received wide-spread community support, the new memorial became a reality, and was unveiled on Memorial Day, July 1, 1985, by the late Comrade Edgar Dove, a veteran of the First World War and Comrade Alfred Jenkins, a veteran of the Second World War. Branch 21 has recently been instrumental in having the cornerstone from the old hospital set up on the new War Memorial site adjacent to the Memorial, and in having a plaque from the old hospital, placed in one of the wards at the new hospital which designated ward 9 as the Veteran's ward. Hung in the waiting room of the old hospital, was a framed list of names. It now hangs in the lobby of the new hospital, and contains 203 names.