Douglas War Memorial
Municipality/Province: Douglas, MB
Memorial number: 46001-029
Type: Cairn
Address: Provincial Road 340
Location: Beside the Douglas Community Hall
GPS coordinates: Lat: 49.8941999 Long: -99.705855
Submitted by: Terry MacDonald. Rural Municipality of Elton.
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.
Inscription found on memorial
[front/devant]
ERECTED IN
MEMORY OF
OUR FALLEN COMRADES
1914 1919
BY VETERANS
OF THE GREAT WAR
AND FRIENDS
OUR
GLORIOUS DEAD
LORNE BROAD
PERCY BROAD
ALEX CAMPBELL
WILLIAM DOAK
HARRY FAGGETTER
JAMES LEITH
JOSEPH MADDER
GEORGE McLEAN
W.J. McGOWAN
CHARLES ROLLINS
THOMAS SHEPERDSON
GEORGE WESTCOTT
FRANK WHITTLE
[right side/côté droit]
RIGHTEOUS HEAVEN!
IN THY GREAT DAY OF VENGEANCE
BLAST THE TRAITOR
AND HIS PERILOUS COUNCILS,
WHO FOR WEALTH,
FOR POWER, THE PRIDE
OF GREATNESS OR REVENGE,
WOULD PLUNGE THIS NATIVE LAND
IN CRUEL WAR.
[back/arrière]
BESTOW NOT ON THE
DEAD YOUR PRAISE
THEY HEED IT NOT
ABOVE.
THE MEN WHO LIVE
AND SUFFER
ARE THEY WHO NEED
YOUR LOVE.
THE VERY STONES
CRY OUT TO US,
TOO LONG
HAVE WE DELAYED,
THE DEBT OF HONOUR
FACES US,
AND THAT DEBT
MUST BE PAID.
[left side/côté gauche]
THEY DIED UNNOTICED
IN THE MUDDY TRENCH,
NAY! GOD WAS WITH THEM,
AND THEY DID NOT BLENCH,
FILLED THEM WITH HOLY FIRES
THAT NAUGHT COULD QUENCH
AND WHEN HE SAW THEIR WORK
ON EARTH WAS DONE
HE GENTLY CALLED TO THEM
MY SONS, MY SONS.
Street view
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