Ontario

This memorial was unveiled in honour of the members of the Dominion Methodist Church who served in the First World War.

Besserer Park is named in honour of Louis-Théodore Besserer, a veteran of the War of 1812.

Louis-Théodore Besserer was born in Château-Richer near Quebec City in January 1785. Following completion of classical studies, he became a notary and opened his own office in Quebec City. During the War of 1812, Besserer serveed first as a lieutenant in the Quebec City militia and later as a captain.

In 1845, he moved to Bytown/Ottawa where he became a succesful businessman, owning large tracts of land in the Sandy Hill area. Besserer dies in Ottawa on 03 February 1861.

In 1931, the Department of Public Works was searching for a distinctive weathervane to crown the Confederation Building's tallest tower. The Vickers Vedette was chosen when the designer saw the aircraft in a show.

The Royal Canadian Air Force gifted the Government of Canada 140 pound copper model of a Vickers Vedette flying boat with a wingspan and fuselage length of over five feet. Vickers Vedette flying boats were used in Canada for aerial mapping and surveying from 1920s-1930s.

The model was mounted over a globe at 265 feet above Wellington Street and used as a weathervane from 1931 until 2009, when it was removed for cleaning and restoration. It is currently in storage by Public Works and will be reinstalled when the building restoration project is complete.

With the development of aircraft during the First World War, provincial governments, forestry, shipping and hydroelectric companies all lobbied the federal government to use them to survey Canada’s interior. Using flying boats donated by the British and United States Navy, the Royal Canadian Air Force agreed to take on the mission. This provided training for the Canadian air force and detailed topographic maps to expedite planning and development of Canada's hydroelectric, mining and forestry. Five bases were created across Canada which carried out experimental aerial photography beginning in the early 1920s.

First World War flying boats were not designed to carry heavy cameras in their nose cockpits, and by 1924 they were unsuitable. The British Vickers company adapted its Viking for Canadian use, but it was underpowered and the amount of water its hull absorbed made it rot quickly. The Society of Forest Engineers and Royal Canadian Air Force designed the ideal aircraft for forest patrol and aerial surveying and Vickers built the aircraft at its Montreal plant. The flying boat was powered by a single 200-horsepower Wright J-4 Whirlwind engine, cockpits were enlarged and hulls strengthened for conditions in the bush. By 1930, there were 36 Vickers Vedettes for survey operations across Canada.

In the late 1920s, the Royal Canadian Air Force quickly expanded to 70 or 80 bases (most of them temporary) located across the country. These supported both aerial photography and forestry patrol activity. Setting up bases proved invaluable at the outset of the Second World War when the Royal Canadian Air Force quickly implemented the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan in the early 1940s.

The Kandahar Cenotaph rests within the Afghanistan Memorial Hall and consists of 204 plaques representing each of the 204 fallen. Originally, the plaques were part of the Kandahar Air Field Cenotaph, now called the Kandahar Cenotaph, – a memorial structure built in 2006 for soldiers, by soldiers, to commemorate their fallen comrades while deployed in Afghanistan. Canadian Forces personnel and Afghan employees added to the memorial over time. It is constructed of marble and slate, the plaques are etched with photographs of those who died, and it weighs about 225,000 kilograms.

On November 10, 2011, the Department of National Defence announced that the memorial would be brought home to Canada. The memorial travelled across Canada and the United States between May 3 and October 26, 2014. The memorial was refurbished in 2016 on the new site for the National Defence Headquarters in Ottawa's west end. The Afghanistan Memorial Hall, home of the Kandahar Cenotaph and Kabul Cenotaph was unveiled on May 13, 2019 and rededicated on August 17, 2019.

The Department of National Defence and the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) held a dedication service at the new Afghanistan Memorial Hall at the National Defence Headquarters (Carling) on May 13, 2019. The event was attended by the Minister of National Defence, the Chief of the Defence Staff, the Deputy Minister of National Defence, General and Flag Officers, Chief Petty Officers and Chief Warrant Officers, and Assistant Deputy Ministers.

The focal point of the hall is the Kandahar Cenotaph battlefield memorial, built by deployed CAF members over the course of their mission to honour the military and civilian fallen who made the ultimate sacrifice during Canada’s long campaign in Afghanistan.

The hall and memorial are open to the general public, and the memorial is accessible to families of the fallen upon request.

Canada’s military engagement in Afghanistan came at a significant cost: 158 Canadian Armed Forces personnel, a Canadian diplomat, a DND contractor, a Canadian journalist who was embedded with the CAF, and 42 United States Armed Forces members, and 1 American civilian contractor who were under Canadian command were killed during our military engagement in Afghanistan. Thousands of others were injured in the line of duty.

A national memorial to commemorate the Afghanistan mission is being planned for Ottawa, to serve as a point of reflection for the Canadian public as a whole. 

On May 23, 2000, a Canadian Forces aircraft flew to France to bring the Unknown Soldier back to Canada. On board was a delegation consisting of a Canadian Forces contingent including a 45-person guard, a bearer party, and a chaplain. The Veterans Affairs contingent contained Veterans and civilians, including two representatives of Canadian youth.

The Commonwealth War Graves Commission, responsible for the care of graves and memorials of the Commonwealth forces members who died in the First and Second World Wars, selected an unidentified Canadian soldier from Cabaret Rouge British Cemetery in the vicinity of Vimy Ridge, the site of a famous Canadian battle of the First World War.

On May 25, at a ceremony at the Canadian National Vimy Memorial, the Commonwealth War Graves Commission turned over the remains to Canada. At that point the Canadian Forces took over responsibility for the safekeeping and transport of the soldier's remains. Immediately after the ceremony, the Canadian delegation returned to Ottawa with a casket containing the soldier's remains on board the aircraft.

On the evening of May 25, the casket carrying the remains of the Unknown Soldier was transported to Parliament Buildings, where it was placed in the Hall of Honour in the Centre Block. The remains lay in state there for three days, until the morning of May 28, so that Canadians could view the casket and pay their respects.

In the afternoon of May 28, the Unknown Soldier was transported from Parliament Hill to the National War Memorial on a horse-drawn gun carriage provided by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. The funeral cortege included Their Excellencies, the Right Honourable Adrienne Clarkson, Governor General of Canada and John Ralston Saul, the Right Honourable Jean Chrétien, Prime Minister of Canada, Veterans, Canadian Forces personnel and members of the RCMP. In a ceremony which aired on national television, the Unknown Soldier was laid to rest in a specially-designed sarcophagus directly in front of the National War Memorial.

From that point on, the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier became a focal point of commemoration for all memorial events at the National War Memorial. It is a memorial in Canada for Canadians. The Tomb is a fitting way to honour the sacrifices on which our freedoms were built.

Located on the upper plaza of the National War Memorial, in front of the existing monument, the Tomb consists of a granite sarcophagus enclosing a casket containing the remains of the unknown soldier. A bronze relief sculpture is secured to the top with stainless steel pins. The four corner pieces of the sarcophagus also have bronze relief work.

The three-tiered sarcophagus is 12 feet long, 8 feet wide and 3 feet high. Dark Caledonia granite, quarried in Rivière à Pierre, Québec, was selected to complement the paler-coloured stone used in the National War Memorial. While it is patterned after the stone altar of the Canadian National Vimy Memorial, the severe Ottawa climate, as well as the bronze and stone makeup of the National War Memorial, led to the decision to produce the relief work in bronze.

The bronze relief sculpture, cast in Roberts Creek, British Columbia, includes the key elements of the stone carving on the Canadian National Vimy Memorial altar; a medieval sword, a helmet of the type worn in the First World War, with branches of maple and laurel leaves. The laurel leaves symbolize both victory and death. Four bronze corner pieces containing symbolic mementos of mourning enhance the sculpture.

Three of the corner pieces are decorated with large replicas of the Memorial Cross. First instituted in 1919, the Cross is presented to the family of those who gave their lives while serving Canada in war or on peacekeeping missions. The three Crosses are slightly different; each has the Royal Cypher of one of the successive monarchs since its inception (George V, George VI, and Elizabeth II). On the fourth corner piece there is a replica of a poppy, representing those who may fall in future conflicts. The curved shape of the corner pieces echos the curve of the top of the National War Memorial.

The sculpture was created by Mary-Ann Liu, a well-known Canadian artist from Mission, British Columbia, who works with a variety of materials. A sculptor and designer for 15 years, her work has been exhibited as far away as Japan.

The design selected for the bronze relief was the unanimous choice of the selection committee. It was one of six submissions received from internationally renowned Canadian artists from across the country who were invited to submit their designs. The selection committee was comprised of representatives from Public Works and Government Services Canada, Veterans Affairs Canada, the Department of National Defence, the National Capital Commission, the Royal Canadian Legion, a former Dominion Sculptor, a sculpture restoration specialist and a design consultant.

The Peacekeeping Monument was a joint venture between the Department of National Defence and the National Capital Commission. In 1990, the Department of National Defence launched the Peacekeepers Monument competition, managed by a committee consisting of representatives from the Department of National Defence, National Capital Commission, and Public Works Canada. The winning submission was entitled The Reconciliation, though many people know it as the Peacekeeping monument. Reconciliation means that the warring sides have settled their differences peacefully and are ready to get along again.

Members of the winning design team from British Columbia were: Jack Kenneth Harman, sculptor; Richard G. Henriquez, architect and urban designer; and Cornelia H. Oberlander, landscape architect. The team also included Gabriel Design, lighting design, and J.L. Richards and Associates, engineering services, both of Ottawa. V.K. Mason Construction Ltd. built the monument. Their design includes a corridor of concrete and steel debris inside two solid granite walls. The corridor is best viewed from the south-east, where the eye is drawn into the narrow opening by a pattern of floor tiles that was modelled on the Green Line bisecting Nicosia, the capital of Cyprus. The tiles curve around chunks of sawn and drilled concrete littering the corridor floor. 

Artist Jack Harman, created a model out of wood and wax representing members of the Canadian Armed Forces. Harman depicted three uniformed figures in alert, active stances to stress that peacekeeping is dangerous. These three figures were later cast in bronze and stand on top of the walls. Two peacekeepers look into the distance, watching what the soldiers on each side are doing. The third peacekeeper crouches beside a Canadian flag, holding a radio to update headquarters with the situation and ensure people are safe.

Broken-up concrete below the walls represent the destruction caused by wars. The walls rise and form a point to symbolize pointing toward the future, when the war is over and there is peace again. Over to one side of the monument are 12 Oak trees in a circle. The number of trees represents the 10 provinces and two territories that comprised Canada when the monument was created in 1992. Oak trees represent the promise of peace; a grove, symbol of life. Adjacent to the trees is a semi-circular ceremonial space.

The Reconciliation was dedicated on 8 October 1992. This special monument commemorates Canada's role in international peacekeeping and the soldiers, both living and dead, who have participated or are currently participating in peacekeeping operations. Since 1947, Canadian peacekeepers have served overseas in a variety of United Nations peacekeeping and peace support missions. Canada played a leading role in the peacekeeping movement from the outset. Canadian Lester B. Pearson won the 1957 Nobel Peace Prize for his pioneering vision in helping establish a United Nations force during the Suez Crisis of the 1950s. Since then, Canada's commitment to international peace efforts and other overseas military actions has continued.

In the years immediately following the Armistice of 1918, Canadian Nursing Association provincial affiliates pondered how best to remember their fallen sisters. Local nursing groups raised $32,000. The national memorial committee negotiated space in Centre Block, on Parliament Hill and commissioned designs. The advisory committee included Toronto architect Frank Darling (an assessors to the Canadian Battlefields. Memorials Commission), artists Lawren Harris and James Hervey MacDonald selected sculptor George William Hill, R.C.A., of Montreal.

Mr. Hill worked in Italy where he found a beautiful piece of marble from the Carara quarries. The completed panel was mounted in the Hall of Honour during the summer of 1926 and unveiled August 24, 1926.

Eight hundred nurses from across Canada had assembled in Ottawa that week, for the thirteenth general meeting of the Canadian Nurses' Association. In a preliminary ceremony on Parliament Hill, in front of the centre block,the President of the Association, Miss Jean Browne, presented the memorial to the acting Prime Minister, Sir Henry Drayton, who accepted it in the name of the people of Canada. Dame Maud McCarthy, the wartime Matron-in-Chief, British troops in France and Flanders, addressed the assembly. She was followed by Matron-in-Chief Margaret Macdonald, who read the roll of honour containing the names of thirty-nine matrons and nursing sisters of the Canadian Army Medical Corps Nursing Service and eight others who had been seconded to Queen Alexandra's Imperial Military Nursing Service Reserve, or who had service with the American Army Nurse Corps.

After the observance of two minutes of silence the Canadian nursing sisters and the invited guests on the platform moved indoors to the Hall of Honour, where Miss Macdonald unveiled the memorial panel. There followed the sounding of the last post. The poignantly familiar notes of the bugle echoing through the corridors of the Parliament building must have recalled to the silent sisters the passing not only of loved comrades in the nursing service but of many a soldier patient so seriously wounded that all the care they could give him had not been enough to save his life. The singing of the national anthem brought the moving ceremony to a close. -- from the "Report of the Unveiling Ceremony of the Memorial to the Canadian Nursing Sisters", The Canadian Nurse (October 1926).

In the Programme of the Unveiling Ceremony of the Canadian Nurses' Memorial, the artist interprets the sculptured panel:

"The design for the sculptured panel embraces the history of the nurses of Canada from the earliest days to the First World War. The right-hand side of the bas-relief represents the contribution made by the religious sisters who came to Canada from France during l'ancien régime, and depicts a sister nursing a sick Indian child while an Iroquois warrior looks on suspiciously.

To the left a group of two nursing sisters in uniform tending a wounded soldier symbolizes the courage and self-sacrifice of the Canadian nurses who served in the war.

In the centre stands the draped figure of "Humanity" with outstretched arms. In her left hand she holds the caduceus, the emblem of healing; with the other hand she indicates the courage and devotion of nurses through the ages.

In the background, "History" holds the book of records containing the deeds of heroism and sacrifice of Canadian nurses through almost three centuries of faithful service."

For more information visit Parliament of Canada.

St. George slaying the dragon from the Warriors' Chapel in St. John the Evangelist at Somerset and Elgin.

This memorial was erected in memory of Private Wellesley Alexander Hull. It should be noted that Wellesley Alexander Hull's name is variously spelled "Wellesley", "Welsley" or "Wesley", in different documents.

Wellesley Alexander Hull was born in January 1873 and grew up in a prominent family of Billings Bridge, a small village that was located near the present-day intersection of Bank Street and Riverside Drive in Ottawa. As a young man, he joined the 43rd Rifles, a militia unit based in Ottawa. He later transferred to the Princess Louise Dragoon Guards. He deployed to South Africa, as part of the first contingent of the Canadian Mounted Rifles, arriving in Cape Town in February 1900. Hull took part in the Battalion's early operations, but fell ill and died on June 7, 1900. Wellesley Alexander Hull is buried at the Kroonstad Garden of Remembrance, next to the Kroonstad hospital on Du Toit Street, South Africa.

This memorial was originally located next to the Orangemen's Lodge at the intersection of Bank Street and Riverside Drive, in the then village of Billings Bridge. In 1960, it was removed to allow for the widening of Riverside Drive and was placed in storage until 1997. After numerous petitions from the Lodge members, the City of Ottawa rededicated the monument at St. George's Hawthorne Anglican Cemetery, as many Hull family members are interred there.

This gallery is named in honour of Lieutenant-Colonel John McCrae, author of “In Flanders Fields”.