Ontario

"C" range at Connaught Range and Primary Training Centre was named in honour of Major-General H.F.G. Letson, CB, CBE, MC, ED, CD (1896 - 1992). The request was approved on 30 June 1993. Colloquially it is known as Letson Range.

Maj-Gen H. Letson road is also named in his honour.

Erected by the Dominion of Canada Rifle Association, this memorial plaque is dedicated in loving memory of the members of the Dominion of Canada Rifle Association who gave their lives in Second World War.

This memorial is dedicated to Veterans and the men and women of the Canadian Forces.

General Burns Park was erected by the Veterans of the Soldiers Settlement of Carleton Heights. This memorial is dedicated to Lieutenant-General E.L.M. "Tommy" Burns, CC, DSO, OBE, MC, CD (June 17, 1897 - September 13, 1985).

General Burns was born in Westmount, Québec, attended the Royal Military College of Canada (RMC), and was commissioned into the Royal Canadian Engineers in 1915. He went overseas in 1916 and fought on the Western Front from 1916 to 1918. In 1917, he became a staff officer with the 9th Brigade and returned to Canada in 1919.

After the war, he attended the School of Military Engineering in England, returning as an instructor to RMC. He served in Halifax and in the Survey Department in Ottawa. He attended the Staff College at Quetta, India and in 1939, as a Lieutenant-Colonel, he attended the Imperial Defence College in England.

During the Second World War, he served as Deputy Minister of Veterans Affairs. He also played a critical role in the Middle East peace process from 1954 to 1959 and was instrumental in developing the UN peacekeeping concept. He served as a Special Staff of the Truce Supervision Organization in Palestine (1954-56) with the Department of External Affairs. From November 1956 to December 1959, he led the UN Emergency Force and was Canada's principal disarmament negotiator from 1960-68.

The entire 75 km route of Highway 416 was designated as a commemorative highway in 1999. Large blue signs appear periodically along the highway.

Erected in November 1995 by citizens of Whitehaven and Britannia Heights, this memorial is dedicated to the war dead of the Second World War.

Excerpts from the speech by Peter Van Dusen at the Dedication of the War Memorial on Sunday, September 20, 1992 by the Royal Canadian Legion, Bells Corners Branch and the City of Nepean:

It is fitting that, in this community celebrating its bicentennial, we should gather here today to unveil and dedicate a new memorial to those who made the supreme sacrifice, in many world conflicts, to ensure that we can all enjoy the freedom and security we have in this great country of ours. The City of Nepean is happy to join with the Royal Canadian Legion, Bells Corners Branch (Branch 593), in celebrating this important milestone, one of many marking their 200th anniversary.

Nepean's story begins with the granting of land in 1792. Many will be surprised to learn that much of present day Ottawa was once a part of Nepean and indeed the sandstone used to construct the Parliament Buildings was quarried in Nepean. The growth of the timber trade, the importance of milk production, their survival of the Great Fire in 1870, the birth of streetcar suburbs, speculative land booms and recurrent depressions are all a part of their past.

The former City of Nepean was named after Sir Evan Nepean. Sir Evan, an English nobleman, served as Secretary of the Admiralty, Chief Secretary for Ireland and Governor of Bombay. He earned an excellent reputation as a hard-working administrative official and was further distinguished by having Nepean named in his honour.

Nepean was a city of 110,000 residents and over 2,100 businesses. The city, its businesses and its residents were happy to join in the celebration of our 200th anniversary and Canada's 125th birthday.

The Royal Canadian Legion's mission is to serve veterans, ex-service persons and their dependents as well as to support community activities. Annually, the Legion contributes millions of dollars as well as other assistance for seniors including care, housing, medical services and training, the cadets, boy scouts, girl guides, youth sports, scholarships and bursaries, geriatric education, charitable organizations and other agencies. The Royal Canadian Legion has 700,000 members, affiliates and ladies' auxiliaries in 1,750 branches in Canada, the United States and Germany. Their service officers are available to provide assistance, advice and representation to help veterans gain the many support programs available through Veterans' Affairs.

The next major campaign is the Annual Poppy Campaign from October 31 to November 10. The Legion appreciates the many donations it received through this campaign. Funds are used to support the programs mentioned earlier.

This ceremony marks the end of a project which began in late 1990 by the Royal Canadian Legion's Bell Corners Branch, by way of a letter to former Nepean Mayor Ben Franklin. Mayor Franklin and his Council were most supportive as were members of his staff. A planning committee held their first meeting in February 1991. It was comprised of Bill Levesque, Director of Planning and Development with the Parks and Recreation Department; Colonel John Gardam, CMM., CD., a former Canadian and Commonwealth War Graves Commissioner and, currently, Project Manager of the Peace Memorial which will be unveiled next month; and led by Clair Adams of the Royal Canadian Legion.

The site was chosen and the launching of the project was announced by Mayor Franklin at a ceremony held on May 5, 1991, to mark the 30th anniversary of the Legion's Bells Corners Branch. A fund-raising program was announced and, thanks to the citizens of Nepean, local service clubs, industry, the Cameron Highlanders of Ottawa Association, the Westboro Branch of the Legion, members of the Bells Corners Branch and many others, we will witness the results of those endeavours today.

A special thanks must go to the Nepean Kiwanis Club. Without their generous donation, it would have been necessary to delay this project for some time. The names of all donors and the details of those who submitted information on their loved ones, whom they all wish remembered, have been included in a capsule which was placed under the memorial. There is still much more to be done to complete this project, including landscaping, for which donations continue to be accepted gratefully.

On parade today they have the Canadian Forces Pipe Band from CFB Ottawa leading the contingents from the Royal Canadian Legion - Zone G5. The Cameron Highlanders of Canada Band leads the contingents from all the local militia units. Also in the parade are members of the Canadian Sea Cadets, the Army Cadets and members of the Nepean Police Service, the Nepean Fire Department, Nepean service clubs and the Girl Guides of Canada.

Wilhelmina "Willa" Magee was born in Montreal on April 3, 1913, one of four children of Allan and Madeline Magee. After finishing school, Willa travelled to Paris to study French language and culture. Upon her return to Canada in 1933, she worked her way around the world as postmistress on Canadian Pacific’s famous Empress of Britain ocean liner.

Back in Montreal, Willa was employed by a news agency, accompanying the photographers who took pictures of local debutantes and celebrities. Hearing that Sir Herbert Marler had been appointed as Canadian minister to Washington, D.C., Willa offered herself as social secretary to his wife, Lady Beatrice Marler, and spent the next two years in Washington before returning to Canada.

In 1939, Willa attended a party at Rideau Hall in Ottawa, residence of the Canadian Governor-General, where she met a young Scottish captain in the British Black Watch 51st Highland Division, named David Walker. The young couple married on July 27, 1939, and only a few days after their honeymoon, in David’s native Scotland,  war was declared and he rejoined his division.

When David went to war with his regiment in France in 1940, Willa stayed with David’s parents at their home in Cupar, Scotland. Shortly before the evacuation of Allied troops at Dunkirk in June 1940, David's entire division was captured at Saint-Valery, Normandy, and he spent the next five years in a prison camp. He managed to escape three times, but was always recaptured. Eventually, he was sent to the infamous Colditz Castle in Germany, a fortress for incorrigible inmates who had repeatedly escaped from other camps.

When Willa discovered she was pregnant she returned to Canada for the birth of her son Patrick in November 1940, but he died of crib death in February 1941 at the age of three months. In July 1941, Parliament passed an Order-in-Council allowing women to enlist, and the Royal Canadian Air Force formed a branch called the Women’s Division. With her husband in prison, Willa decided to join the war effort. In October 1941, she graduated with the first group of air force recruits, and achieved the highest marks in officer training. Three months later, in January 1942, she was placed in charge of the new female recruits in Canada, all of whom entered Number 7 Manning Depot in Rockcliffe, Ontario, for basic training. In February 1943, Willa was promoted to commanding officer of the Women's Division in Canada. Given the rank of wing officer, from then on Willa became known among the ranks as “The Wing.”

Willa was a natural-born leader. She was responsible for setting up training depots all over Canada as well as the overall discipline and efficiency of the Women’s Division. It was also her duty to urge more women to enlist, and no doubt her enthusiasm convinced many young women to follow in her footsteps. For the next couple of years, she crisscrossed the country by land and air, speaking to groups and organizations, even church congregations, in an effort to change the public perception of women in uniform.

It was still very much a man's world, but privately, Willa waged a war for women’s equality. For example, at all the training depots, the officers' mess, or dining hall, was reserved for men only, so Willa was not allowed to eat with the male officers. Frustrated by this regulation, one day Willa ordered her driver to park in front of the officers' mess. In sub-zero temperatures, she sat inside the vehicle during a snowstorm, eating her cold crackers, until the male officers were so ashamed that they invited her inside.

In November 1943, Willa accepted a solid gold cup on behalf of the Women’s Division, a gift from the British Women’s Auxiliary Air Force, presented by Her Royal Highness Princess Alice, Duchess of Gloucester. For her war work, Willa was made a Member of the Order of the British Empire in London, England, in January 1944, presented by Queen Elizabeth, wife of King George VI.

During the long years that David was in prison, Willa came up with a code for communicating important news in seemingly innocent letters to her husband, which passed undetected by both the Canadian and German censors. She managed to smuggle escape maps to David in the soles of a pair of shoes contained in a Red Cross package. This time, Canadian military officers intercepted the package and found the maps. The ingeniousness of the scheme appealed to them, so they repacked the shoes and sent off the package.

Unfortunately, nobody escaped from Colditz Castle, not even David. Willa resigned her post in October 1944 after three years of service, but it wasn’t until May 1945 that the war finally ended and they were reunited. Willa Walker blazed a trail for women in the Royal Canadian Air Force during the Second World War. The Wing Officer Willa Walker Park was dedicated in her honour on June 16, 2018. 

Captain James Symington died on May 6, 1945, the last day of fighting in Europe in the Second World War. James Symington attended Ashbury from 1927 to 1933. This memory box was created in his honour around 2008.

There was an additional memorial to him in the form of a dining hall.

Prior to construction of the new Maclaren Hall in 2004, the dining hall at Ashbury College was called Symington Hall. The school’s existing dining hall was refurbished and extended with funding from the Symington family after the death of their son, Captain James Symington, who died on May 6, 1945, the last day of fighting in Europe in the Second World War. James attended Ashbury from 1927 to 1933. The room was completed and dedicated in 1947; the Summer 1947 issue of The Ashburian yearbook was also dedicated to James Symington. A portrait of Symington hung in the dining hall for many years and a plaque was erected after the dedication. An additional memorial to him in the form of a framed memory box hangs on the wall of the school’s Heritage Room.