Other

The Loadmasters Memorial was dedicated in October 1997, a project that was initiated by CWO Clay Kerr and WO Rolly Bonneau of 436 (T) Squadron, with the assistance of the Logistics Movers Association.

The addition of the plaque on the memorial was done ca. 2005/2006, in order to make a correction, (it was determined that MCpl Lacoste had the incorrect rank and year).

The 405 Squadron Memorial was erected by the 405 Squadron Association, and was officially dedicated on June 22, 1996.

This memorial is dedicated to the No. Six Repair Depot, Royal Canadian Air Force of the Second World War.

This memorial is dedicated to all the members of the Royal Canadian Air Force No. 5 especially those who gave their lives in the Air Force service to their country in the Second World War.

In 2019, the Armoury had two quilts commissioned by the Prince Edward County Barnyard Quilt Trails. The Like a Rolling KeySTONE quilt represents The Armoury's architecture and signature keystone window. The circles denote unity and working together for the common good. The green pays tribute to our Indigenous neighbours, whose ancestral land we stand on.

The other barn quilt is Strong and FREEdom.

This memorial is dedicated to those who died from the Royal Flying Corps and the Royal Air Force while on duty in Canada, 1917 to 1919. Deseronto was one of several small towns in Ontario which hosted air training establishments. In this area there were two flying schools, Camp Rathburn and Camp Mohawk, which operated between 1917 and 1919.

The Deseronto Cenotaph was unveiled in a ceremony on September 3, 1923 and attended by many of the townspeople. A piece of land for the cenotaph, forty feet square, was purchased by the Town of Deseronto from the Rathbun Company, at a cost of $100.

The memorial was donated by former Deseronto resident, Thomas Carson Brown. Thomas was born on 21 April 1870, the son of Thomas Brown and Emily Varty. He had nine siblings and lived in Lennox and Addington County where the family had a farm. His mother died in childbirth when Thomas was seven years old. By 1881, the family had moved to Mill Point (Deseronto). In the 1891 census, when he was 21, Thomas’s trade is given as bricklayer. His father died just six weeks after the census was taken.

It was through the bricklaying trade that Thomas C. Brown would go on to earn his fortune in New York State, where his firm constructed a number of public buildings, including the Plattsburgh Normal School, and a large section of the Clinton Correctional Facility at Dannemora. Deseronto’s newspaper, The Tribune, reported Brown’s marriage in August 1899 to Hattie B. Humphrey, noting that “the groom is well and favourably known in Deseronto, where he passed his boyhood days. He is now engaged in the contracting business in Little Falls. He is a brother of Mrs. Jas. Sexsmith.” Thomas’s sister, Jane Brown, married James Sexsmith in Deseronto in January 1884. She died of pneumonia in 1910.

Brown went on to serve as a Senator in the New York Senate between 1925 and 1930, where he took a keen interest in prison reform issues. He clearly never forgot his home town of Deseronto, as the generous gift of a war memorial demonstrates. It is not just a war memorial, however, as Thomas C. Brown ensured that his parents and five of his sisters (Jane, Ida, Etta, Emma and Annie) were also commemorated on the structure.

(Courtesy of Community Archives of Belleville and Hastings County)

The Captain George Kerr, V.C. Plaque was erected in 1973 by the Ontario Archaeological and Historic Sites Board.

In 2019, the Armoury had two quilts commissioned by the Prince Edward County Barnyard Quilt Trails. The Strong and FREEdom quilt represents the Hastings and Prince Edward Regiments, locally known as the Hasty P's. The Regimental Colours of royal blue and orange encircle a white poppy, a symbol of peace.

The other barn quilt is Like a Rolling KeySTONE.

This memorial was erected on July 18, 1998, in memory of Second World War personnel who served in the 431 Iroquois and 434 Bluenose Squadrons at Burn, Tholthorpe, Croft and Yorkshire, England.

431 Iroquois Squadron veteran, Bill Baluk, was the project coordinator who worked two years on fulfilling his dream of a memorial. Through fundraising, the former crew members, families and supporters covered the cost of the new memorial, complete with squadron crests and mottoes.

The 431 Squadron was formed at Burn, Yorkshire, England on November 11, 1942, as the RCAF's 28th - 11th Bomber - squadron formed overseas. The 434 Squadron was formed at Tholthorpe, Yorkshire, England on June 13, 1943, as the RCAF's 31st - 13th Bomber - squadron formed oversea. Both units flew Wellington, Halifax and Canadian-built Lancaster aircraft on strategic and tactical bombing operations.

After hostilities in Europe, they were selected as part of the Tiger Force for duty in the Pacific, and returned to Canada for reorganization and training. The sudden end of the war in the Far East resulted in the squadrons being disbanded at Dartmouth, Nova Scotia on September 5, 1945. The 431 squadron's nickname was Iroquois and was later adopted by the Town of Simcoe, Ontario. The 434 squadron's nickname was Bluenose and was later adopted by the Rotary Club of Halifax, Nova Scotia.

When the RCAF's Bomber group's Iroquois Squadron began flying Canadian-built Lancasters, the unit's mascot, Minnie Simcoe, flew with a different crew member on every attack. Minnie's surname is the name of the town that sponsors the squadron.

Photo 35069-020c.jpg: Minnie is handed into the safekeeping of the pilot of the "Simcoe Warrior", Canadian Lanc version. F/L Melvin Chisholm of Lafleche, Saskatchewan, wearing Mae West at right. Left is his navigator, F/O Hugh McNenly, Massey, Ontario, also wearing Mae West; centre, Nursing Sister Louise Dawson, of West Summerland, BC hands Minnie over.