Manitoba

The idea for the Transcona cenotaph came into existence in 1921, when pressure was put on the town council, to create a public war memorial for the lives lost during the Great War. The cenotaph was made in the yards of the Memorial Marble and Tile Company of Winnipeg. It was composed of a roughly finished grey granite obelisk, fourteen feet in height, placed on a five-foot base of smoothly polished granite. It took an experienced and dedicated stonecutter one hour to engrave two letters of a name into the surface. When it was completed, sixty-one names of war victims were engraved.

It was finally erected in late 1931 on the corner of Day Street (formerly Oxford Street) and Regent Avenue and on November 11, 1931, it was dedicated to the war dead of the First World War. After the Second World War the names of the deceased were engraved on the cenotaph. A plaque was later added to honour soldiers in the Korean War and Canadian Peacekeepers. In mid-1954, the cenotaph was relocated to its present site in Memorial Circle Park. It was rededicated on June 3, 2001.

Over the years, joint research by the Transcona Museum and the Transcona Legion Branch No. 7 identified individuals from the First World War and Second World War who were missing from the cenotaph. On June 5, 2011, with contributions made by the Transcona Legion Branch No. 7, the cenotaph was rededicated with new plaques that included the names of the missing soldiers.

The Stone of Remembrance was erected in 1987 on the 60th Anniversary of Royal Canadian Legion Branch No. 7 (Transcona) in honour of fallen comrades. The sculpture incorporates the crests of the Royal Canadian Navy, the Canadian Army and the Royal Canadian Air Force, as well as the maple leaf. 

The military section of the Transcona Cemetery was established on June 18, 1918 when the Town Council of Transcona set aside Block 3 for the sole use of members of the Canadian Expeditionary Force. The military section was properly named Field of Honour in the 1980s.

The Hebrew Sick Cenotaph is dedicated to the memory of Jewish Canadian war dead of the First and Second World Wars.

This park is named after Andrew Mynarski, V.C. Mynarski was serving with 419 "Moose" Squadron when his plane was shot down. Preparing to jump from the blazing airplane, he saw that the rear gunner, Pat Brophy, was trapped in his gun turret, struggling to break free. Immediately, Mynarski turned from the escape hatch and made his way back through the flames, ignoring his friend's shouts of, "Go back! Save yourself!" After numerous attempts to release Brophy, Mynarski reluctantly make his way back to the hatch. His parachute and clothes ablaze, he offered his friend a final gesture of encouragement: he stood at attention and saluted. He jumped, but succumbed to his burns soon after landing. Miraculously, Brophy survived the crash. The plane hit a tree as it crashed to earth, breaking open the gun turret and throwing him free. He thus lived to tell of Pilot Officer Andrew Mynarski's bravery. Andrew Mynarski was awarded the Victoria Cross posthumously for his effort to save another's life.

Needs further research

This plaque was erected by the residents of West St. Paul in memory of the local men who died during the First World War.

This memorial was presented by the War Workers' Club to the municipality of West St. Paul and is dedicated to the local war dead of the Second World War.

The East St. Paul Cenotaph was unveiled on May 28, 1921, by Major General Ketchen in memory of the soldiers of the municipality of East St. Paul who fell in the great war. It was dedicated on September 13, 1925, by Rev. R. W. Ridgeway of St. Thomas’ Anglican Church and Rev. J. W. McAlpine of Birds Hill United Church. A crowd of approximately 100 people including families of the fallen, East St. Paul Reeve W.J. Dawson and a number of other dignitaries attended.

The cenotaph is of Garson granite and was constructed and designed by Mr. A C Cox of Beausejour. It has curved pediments at the top and a carved wreath on the front.

A plaque on the cenotaph identifies the East St. Paul residents who lost their lives in the Great War. There are seventeen names on the plaque, but an eighteenth name was missed - Private Walter Chudleigh. Plaques were later dedicated to the war dead of the local area from the Second World War and the Korean War.

This memorial is dedicated to the veterans of the First World War, Second World War, Korea and to Peacekeeping.

The Sergeant Tommy Prince Mural was unveiled on 17 September 2011. Fred Thomas designed the mural and his co-worker at the time, Nereo Eugenio, painted the mural with the help of some youth at Graffiti Art Programming. From left to right, the images in the mural include:

1. Prince as one with the land. He is dressed in uniform, but still a warrior as represented in the image behind him;

2. Devil holding First Special Service Force (Devil’s Brigade) shoulder patch;

3. United States Combat Infantry Badge which Prince received with the First Special Service Force (Devil’s Brigade). 

4. Prince wearing a backwards beret as a Princess Patricia Canadian Light Infantry (PPCLI) soldier in the Korean War. The PPCLI Cap Badge on his beret would either be the 1933 or 1948 version he wore in Korea;

5. Jump Wings - the basic style worn for basic Para Qualified personnel. Prince was Jump Qualified from the Second World War;

6. PPCLI Cap Badge, the 1965 pattern which is current from 1956 to today;

7. First Special Service Force shoulder patch worn by the combined Canadian/United States troops;

8. 25th Canadian Infantry Brigade badge worn by troops in Korea;

9. Medals that Prince was entitled to.

Donald Mackey, chair of the Tommy Prince Military Medal Memorial Fund Committee, first met Prince in 1953 when they were both stationed in Winnipeg. An existing mural of Prince, who lived in the North End, was the target of repeated vandalism over the years and to help sustain the memory of Prince, Donald began fund raising for the new mural. Donald founded the Tommy Prince Royal Army Cadet Corps, located at 200 Isabel Street, for inner city youth in October 1999. He was also instrumental in the Tommy Prince Veteran's Park being established in 2007.

Sergeant Tommy Prince was a prominent Anishinaabe activist who served in the Second World War and Korean War. His story is one of the most widely known examples of the wartime contributions of Indigenous soldiers in the mid-20^th century and the poor treatment they received upon their return to civilian life in Canada. His accomplishments attracted national media attention during his lifetime and earned him a great many posthumous tributes.

Prince was born in October 1915 in St. Peter's Reserve, Manitoba. He was the great-grandson of respected Ojibwa Chief Peguis, and one of eleven children born to Elizabeth and Henry Prince. In 1920, they moved to Brokenhead Ojibway Nation in Scanterbury, Manitoba. At age five, Prince was forced to leave his community and attend Elkhorn Residential School, where he joined the Cadet Corps. He suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder from the residential school before he joined the military.

In 1940, he volunteered to fight for Canada in the Second World War. He rose from sapper to lance corporal with the Royal Canadian Engineers before volunteering for the 1^st Canadian Parachute Battalion in 1942. Soon after, he was assigned to the elite 1^st Canadian Special Service Battalion, which was attached to the First Special Service Force (Devil’s Brigade). He reached the rank of sergeant by war’s end, and was one of three Canadians to receive both the Silver Star (United States) and the Military Medal. King George VI presented him with both honours during a ceremony at Buckingham Palace in 1945, shortly before Prince’s discharge from the army. 

He wanted to prove his people were as good as any white man and restore their good name. One way to achieve this was to acquire as many medals as possible and he did so without putting his men at risk. Before any patrols he would ensure they were camouflaged and everything was secured. Often he would patrol alone because there would be less noise. Prince was a natural warrior and he excelled as the military developed the skills he learned on the reserve while living off the land. He loved the Devil's Brigade and was always praising his men, "If it wasn't for my men, I wouldn't be who I am today." He was a caring man who loved to joke around and make people laugh.

He was a prominent leader in the Indigenous rights movement of the 1940s. After the war, he served as spokesperson and vice-president of the Manitoba Indian Association, and appeared on its behalf before a Special Joint Committee of the Senate and House of Commons, tasked with studying the Indian Act. During his testimony in 1947, he advocated for the abolition of the Indian Act and respect for existing treaties, and presented submissions from Indigenous in Manitoba, which called for improved schools, better living conditions, and expanded hunting, trapping, and fishing rights.

In 1950, Prince re-enlisted in the Korean War. He contributed to the defence of Hill 677 in the Battle of Kapyong in 1951, for which the United States awarded the Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry the Distinguished Unit Citation—the only time a Canadian unit has received this honour. Military service took a heavy toll on his health and, following his honourable discharge from the army, he faced a difficult return to civilian life in Manitoba. Prince endured discrimination, illness, and poverty in the years that followed and died in 1977. He fought many demons after residential school and the horrors of combat, but he never lost his humility, self-worth, sense of humour and pride of being Anishinaabe.