1998 Remembrance Day Poster
The national unveiling of this year’s poster occurred Ottawa, Ontario on October 22 and in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island at the Head Office of Veterans Affairs. Large versions of the poster were unfurled on the outside walls of both the Confederation Centre building in Charlottetown and the National Arts Centre in Ottawa.
About the Poster
The armistice to end the First World War took effect at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month in 1918. Our Remembrance Day poster this year commemorates the 80th anniversary of the end of that War.
In 1914 Canada entered the War as a colony of Britain. The 1st Canadian division was under the command of a British general. By the end of the War in 1918, a Canadian, Sir Arthur Currie, led a superb fighting corps of four Canadian divisions. In all, more than 619,600 men and women served in Canada’s armed forces during the First World War. Of these, more than 66,000 - about one in ten - gave their lives, and more than 172,500 were wounded. Of Canada’s Merchant Navy, more than 570 also lost their lives. In addition, more than 1,600 Newfoundlanders gave their lives serving with British forces.
Canada’s war record earned the country a separate signature on the 1919 peace treaty and marked Canada’s coming of age as a nation.
Background Photo
Canadian soldiers enjoying a brief respite from war, July 1917. (National Archives of Canada PA-001421)
Inset Photos
HMCS Rainbow, the first ship commissioned in the Royal Canadian Navy. In the First World War it was based in Esquimalt, British Columbia and patrolled the Pacific coast as far south as Panama. (National Archives of Canada DAP, 1967 - 052)
"Over the Top". Canadians on their way to victory at the taking of Courcelette, 1916. (National Archives of Canada C 46606)
Canadian fighter (National Archives of Canada PA-6024)
A Nursing Sister tending a soldier in a Canadian field hospital. (National Archives of Canada PA-988)
Design: Aerographics Creative Services.
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