New Brunswick

This tablet was erected by the Ladies' College classes of 1928-29 in memory of Nursing Sister Rena Mclean. Rena, who was nicknamed Bird, was the daughter of a successful businessman and Conservative politician. A student at Mount Allison Ladies’ College in Sackville, New Brunswick, in 1891-92, she graduated from the Halifax Ladies’ College in 1896. She then studied nursing at the Newport Hospital in Newport, Rhode Island, completing her training in 1908. She was head nurse in the operating room at the Henry Heywood Memorial Hospital in Gardner, Massachusetts, when she enlisted for service in the First World War and was appointed to the Canadian Army Medical Corps on September 28, 1914.

McLean left almost immediately for Britain and in November proceeded to France with No. 2 Canadian Stationary Hospital. In Le Touquet (Le Touquet-Paris-Plage) she was one of 35 Canadian nurses who helped convert a luxurious hotel into the first hospital in France that was completely staffed by Canadians. In the spring of 1915, 1,100 Canadian soldiers, victims of chlorine gas at the second battle of Ypres, passed through the wards on their way back to Britain. Later that year McLean served briefly with No. 12 British Stationary Hospital at Rouen and then joined the Duchess of Connaught’s Canadian Red Cross Hospital in Taplow, England. After a return to Canada on transport duty, she proceeded to Salonica (Thessaloniki), Greece in October 1916, for service with No. 1 Canadian Stationary Hospital. There was controversy in Britain over nurses having been sent to the Mediterranean and all were returned the next year. McLean then joined No. 16 Canadian General Hospital in Orpington, London. Brief postings to the hospital ship Araguaya and again to No. 16 General Hospital intervened before she was assigned in March 1918 to the Llandovery Castle, which carried Canadian wounded to Halifax. She died on the voyage back to England when the vessel was torpedoed and sunk by the enemy off the coast of Ireland on June 27, 1918. All 14 nursing sisters on board perished.

Rena McLean was an attractive fun-loving woman, kind and caring. As her last letter, written on board the Llandovery Castle on June 16, illustrates, she kept her morale high in spite of the years spent in some of the worst areas of the war. “Here we are once more approaching Halifax, but still as far from home as ever... This trip more than half our patients are amputation cases and would make you heartsick only they are so cheerful and happy themselves... This may be my last trip over and, if it is, that means that I don’t get home until dear knows when, for as soon as I get to England I am going to put in for France and once there it will be hard enough to get away.”

Plaques in memory of Rena McLean are located in St. James United Church in Souris, in Mount Allison’s Memorial Library and in the X-ray laboratory at Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Charlottetown. A 200-bed hospital for veterans in Charlottetown was named after her in 1919, but was closed within a year or so. The Canadian Forces Medical Services School at Canadian Forces Base Borden Ontario gives the Llandovery Castle Award each year to the most deserving nursing officer. Rena Maude McLean’s medals are held by the Borden Military Museum, Borden, Ontario. They were placed there by Dr. Gustave Gingras following the death of his wife Rena M. McLean Gingras, a niece of Nursing Sister Rena McLean.

The Vocational Education Act of 1918, called for instruction in industrial, agricultural and commercial subjects and where warranted, the establishment of agricultural and vocational high schools. Named chair of the advisory committee, Fred Magee threw himself into the project. He visualized the new facility to be a centre for community activities. To ensure this, his wife, Myrtle McLeod Magee donated a fifteen acre lot for the new school, while Fred Magee provided $50,000 for a 700 seat auditorium-gymnasium.

Upwards of 1,000 people were in attendance on September 7, 1948, for the official opening of the Regional Memorial School by Lieutenant Governor Hon. D. L. MacLaren. It had been suggested that the new facility might be named in honour of Magee, but he rejected the ide and suggested that the school be dedicated in memory of the fallen in the two world wars.

Dr. George Ernest Bennett (1901–1972) was the first principal of the new school. He formed the Cadet Corps #2335, which held its first parade on December 17, 1948. The Cadet Corps accomplished much more than building leadership and encouraging physical fitness, as it led scores of Regional Memorial School graduates to careers in the Canadian Armed Forces. Under the critical eye of Captain Bennett, the Regional Memorial School Corps achieved first rank standing in the province.

Regional Memorial School was closed in June 1995. In 2004, the facility was acquired by Atlantic Windows who used the main building and industrial arts building as a storage facility. The industrial arts building was demolished in 2013 due to structure deterioration. The school was located at 49 E Main Street.

This tablet lists the names of all Mount Allison University students and alumni who lost their lives in the First World War. The tablet was first located immediately inside the entrance of the Memorial Library and is now part of a series of bronze plaques.

Plaques to Nursing Sister Rena McLean who was killed in the First World War, and other students killed in the South African War, Second World War, and Korean War were later added. In 1958, the plaques were moved from the main hall of the Memorial Library to the stairway due to renovations. The building was repurposed in 1970 and its name changed to the University Centre. The plaques were moved to their current location in 2008 and are situated on the ground floor atrium of the Wallace McCain Student Centre. They are mounted on the wall just outside the University's prestigious Tweedie Hall, which features a large mural by famed war artist and alumnus Alex Colville. 

At the University’s annual Remembrance Day service, students, faculty, and staff gather to pay homage to those who made the ultimate sacrifice. Every year since 1927, the names of each of the fallen are read aloud. The tablet was in place for Remembrance Day celebrations in 1927.

Vimy Ridge Memorial was carved in 1928 by a Canadian National Railroad employee James O'Rourke as a memorial to the First World War Battle of Vimy Ridge and to the Canadians who fell in that battle. O'Rourke used only a hammer and a railroad spike to carve the artillery gun, maple leaves and inscription.

Nearby there is a storyboard with information on the battle. The site is still maintained by local residents.

Directions: from Sackville, New Brunswick, travel 106 West towards Dorchester. Park at the Ancient Indian Portage Monument and walk a few steps back towards Sackville onto the dirt road (Old Frosty Hollow Road) to the railway tracks. Be extremely careful when you cross the tracks, then turn right onto the four-wheeler trail which parallels the tracks. Continue west along the trail until it turns into the woods and you will be at the memorial. This walk is approximately twenty minutes.

Erected by the Ladies Auxiliary of Royal Canadian Legion Branch No. 75, this memorial is dedicated to all local veterans and war dead. The memorial was erected by Heritage Memorial Ltd. Windsor, NS, Ruth Fahey a Ladies Aux. member was the one who had the idea to have a memorial erected at our Legion. Susan Petley (President at the time) advertised with flyers and the media for names of the deceased service men and women in the area. They soon had 250 names. The memorial they had ordered was to hold 100 names. They had to order two wings to accommodate the other names. They were granted funding from the Provincial Government, NB Command Community Services Fund, and donations. The cost of the memorial was $3975, The unveiling was on November 11, 1995 by Susan Petley and Alan Graham. Approximately 250 people were present. The Poppy Chairperson Sheila Handrahan delivers the Memorial Service each year on Remembrance Day to a packed Legion.

This new cenotaph in Bas-Caraquet has been designed by Armel Lanteigne, President of the Royal Canadian Legion Caraquet Branch No. 56, assisted by Denise Dumaresq (Treasurer). The cenotaph was built by Monument Ste-Anne, from Bertrand, and erected in May 2012. It was built to replace the crumbling old cenotaph, erected in the 1940'. The old cenotaph, located in the parish cemetery, has been demolished. The new cenotaph is no located in the Parc des Fondateurs at the village's entrance. The new cenotaph is dedicated to all war dead. The war in Afghanistan has been added to this new memorial.

This new cenotaph has been erected in September 2015 by Armel Lanteigne, President of the Royal Canadian Legion Caraquet Branch No. 56, assisted by Jim Hobson(Member) et de Denise Dumaresq (Treasurer). The cenotaph was built by Monument Ste-Anne, from Bertrand, and is dedicated to all war dead. The war in Afghanistan has been added to this new memorial.

This armoury was named in honour of Lieutenant-Colonel C.L. Gammon. He was born in 1907. He sailed for England with the North Shore Regiment in July 1941, as a company second-in-command. His unit spent the next few years training in Liverpool and Scotland in preparation for the D-Day landings. On June 6, 1944, Captain Gammon commanding the Regiment's Support Company, landed on Juno Beach in the Nan Red sector.

He participated in the capture of Saint-Aubin-sur-Mer. Soon after he was promoted to major and placed in command of D Company, leading his company during the attack on the Carpiquet airfield, where the North Shore Regiment lost nearly 130 men. He later fought with his regiment in Caen and all through France. By September 1944, the regiment had advanced into Holland, where Gammon took part in the battle of the Scheldt and the fighting near the Maas River. In February 1945, they moved into Germany, fighting in the Rhineland, the Hochwald, and ended the war on German soil.

Gammon later commanded the North Shore Regiment from April 1951 to September 1954 and the renamed regiment - 2nd Battalion Royal New Brunswick Regiment (North Shore) - from October 1954 to May 1956. He died in June 1993.   

This memorial is dedicated in memory of the men and women who fell on the field of honour, built for the parish on the 4th, 5th and 6th October 1979 by Alban Boudreau on the instructions of Elzéar. The exact date of the unveiling is unknown but believed to have been November 11, 1979.

New memorial can be seen here 13001-031

This memorial is dedicated in memory of all those who served in the First World War (1914-1918), Second World War (1939-1945), and the Korean War (1950-1953). It was erected by R. Mainville Construction.