Ontario

This sculpture, “THIS WAY!”, depicts a member of 1^st Canadian Parachute Battalion on one knee on a cobblestone road, looking back over his right shoulder and signaling other members to follow him during the Normandy Drop. Since no experienced soldier would pause on an open road, the Artists suggests imagining that a near-by vehicle wreck provides the paratrooper with cover from the direction of the enemy. Furthermore, we assume he has already sighted a protected spot for his next tactical bound to pursue the assault. This paratrooper’s kit includes the unique items of uniform identification that distinguished Canadians from the British paratroopers: Canadian Jump Wings on his chest and a small ribbon on the epaulettes. This sculpture was erected in March 2013 by the Royal Military College of Canada, and is dedicated to members of the 1^st Canadian Parachute Battalion, which was the first Canadian operational parachute unit. That unit was placed under command of the British 6^th Airborne Division and distinguished itself in two major operational para-drops: the D-Day drop into Normandy, and the Rhine River drop.

This sculpture, “KNOWN ONLY UNTO GOD”, depicts a First World War battlefield ‘temporary’ grave – an earth mound surrounded by large stones at its edge, with a wood cross at the head of the mound bearing the inscription “Known only unto God”. A Canadian soldier is seen kneeling at the foot of the grave, his head bowed in prayer, his helmet held in his right hand and supporting himself with his rifle in his left hand. This sculpture was erected in March 2013 by the Royal Military College of Canada, and is dedicated to unidentified Canadian soldiers who died in battle; to remind Canadians of the human cost of war.

This sculpture, “COVERING FIRE”, depicts an Infantry Section Commander – a sergeant – moving forward with his rifle held in his left hand at chest-level while pointing to his MG crew where he wanted them to go to ground to provide covering fire for the section assault. This sculpture was erected in March 2013 by the Royal Military College of Canada, and is dedicated to current and past members of the Royal Canadian Regiment.

This sculpture, “WARCO”, depicts Ross Munro, a Canadian journalist who served in the Second World War, and accompanied Canadians ashore at five opposed landings: Dieppe, Sicily, Italy, the Normandy invasion, and the crossing of the Rhine. This sculpture was erected in March 2013 by the Royal Military College of Canada, and is dedicated to current and past Canadian journalists who cover national defence and security issues.

This sculpture, “IZZY DOLLS”, depicts a Canadian Combat Engineer, Master Corporal Mark Isfeld, presenting hand-knitted dolls made by his mother to Bosnian children in the zone of his unit’s operations. In the 1990s, MCpl Mark Isfeld was killed while clearing land mines on UN operations in Bosnia. This sculpture was erected in March 2013 by the Royal Military College of Canada, and is dedicated to current and past members of the Canadian Combat Engineers, in particular Master Corporal Mark Isfeld.

This sculpture, “MP”, depicts a Canadian Military Police with a pair of goggles on their helmet and an MP armband on the left upper arm of the figure. In addition, a miniature MP Branch hat badge is on the base of the statuette. This was an adaptation of an existing statuette “INFANTRYMAN” 1997 to a different military specialty. This sculpture was erected in March 2013 by the Royal Military College of Canada, and is dedicated to current and past members of the Canadian Military Police.

A large and handsome building constructed in 1862, was purchased by Queen's University in 1927 to serve as the Students' Memorial Union, named in commemoration of students who died during the First World War. The building contained a Memorial Room where the memory of the fallen would be reverently preserved. After the building was destroyed by a serious fire on September 4, 1947, the main part of the present John Deutsch University Centre was constructed in its place and includes the Memorial Room.

Visit Wartime at Queen's for more information.

Navy Memorial Park is a 3.37 acre neighbourhood park established by the Women’s Royal Canadian Naval Service (WREN) Association of Kingston and unveiled by Kingston Mayor Turn on October 6, 2003. On July 15, 2003, the Kingston City Council approved the dedication and renaming of the land (known as Marine Museum Parkette) to Navy Memorial Park.

The Royal Canadian Navy and Merchant Navy Memorial is located here.

This sculpture, “FALLEN SOLDIER”, depicts the exact moment a soldier is mortally wounded and is falling backwards and dropping his rifle to the ground. This sculpture was unveiled in March 2013 by the Royal Military College of Canada, and is dedicated to current and past Canadian soldiers. This statuette is special in that after Andre Gauthier was inspired as the image arose in his ‘mind’s eye’, he immediately started sculpting it in wax on a wire armature without posing a human model. The statuette turned out to be disturbing in a dramatic sense; viewers who have looked at this sculpture are inevitably troubled by it. The reason, Andre believes, is that soldiers know they are in a dangerous profession that does include the possibility of making the ultimate sacrifice, but they tend to convince themselves that it would happen to others and not to themselves.

This sculpture, “HELICOPTER PILOT”, depicts a Canadian Army pilot flying a Voyageur twin-rotor transport helicopter with a squadron based at St. Hubert airfield with the uniform, weapons, and accoutrements circa 1968. This sculpture was unveiled in March 2013 by the Royal Military College of Canada, and is dedicated to current and past Canadian Helicopter pilots. While serving in Mobile Command Headquarters, Andre Gauthier created this life-sized bust. In the early days of Integration, Army pilots kept their service identity secret but later had to choose either to stay in the Army without flying, or to convert to Air Force status.