The Gananoque Cenotaph was dedicated by local citizens on December 15, 1920. The brass statue at the top is a soldier at rest, leaning on his rifle. The Canadian William A. Rogers Limited Company published a catalogue of memorial designs including the over-life-sized statue of a pensive infantryman, leaning on his rifle, with his chin resting on his hand. Rogers was, at that time, the only bronze foundry in Canada that had successfully made large casts like this. The figure is a cast from a model by a St. Boniface sculptor named Nicolas Pirroton.
Fifty-eight local men gave their lives in the First World War and in their memory, 58 trees were planted in Town Park in May of 1919, at the first Remembrance ceremony commemorating their sacrifice.
The names of the 25 local dead from the Second World War were added in 1946. In 2005, the cenotaph was restored. Corporal Randy Payne, killed in Afghanistan, was added in 2006 and the cenotaph was rededicated in 2007. In 2016, an interlocking stone apron was added around the cenotaph for accessibility. The idea for the stone apron came from Neil McCarney of the Gananoque Boat Line. The name of Flight Sergeant William Macmillan, a relative of McCarney’s, is engraved on the memorial. The stonework was funded from the Gananoque Legion and a contribution from the Gananoque Boat Line. Paul Doornbos of Thornbusch Landscaping near Lansdowne, the landscape architect who installed it, donated his labour. It was his contribution for his parents who came to Canada from the Netherlands. Two local soldiers, Private Bernard Sanders and Lieutenant Paul Sampson, were killed during the final weeks of the war and are buried in the Groesbeek Canadian War Cemetery, Netherlands.
The youngest local soldier to lose his life was William Dailey, age 15, and the oldest was John Leakey, age 50. Three local families each lost two sons in the First World War and one family lost a son in both of the World Wars.
The 100th anniversary of Gananoque’s war memorial fell on December 15, 2020. Students painted 100 rocks – one for each of the 100 years – and placed them on the base of the monument on November 22 as part of the celebrations of the 100th anniversary.
