Saskatchewan Window

Canadian Memorial Chapel was born in the hearts of private soldiers in the First World War who, guided by a sergeant, formed a working party to bury six of Canada's war dead. On a November night of 1915, in the Ypres Salient, France, one of the soldiers said to Reverend Lieutenant-Colonel (Lt.-Col.) George Fallis, CBE, ED, DD: "Padre, after the war is over some chaplain should build a memorial in Canada in memory of fellows like these who have given their all." From that moment on, he would never lay away their beloved dead without the idea of a memorial chapel in his mind.

On his return to Canada he was advised by Reverend S.D. Chown, DD, General Superintendent of the Methodist Church, to go to Vancouver and choose a site in Shaughnessy Heights facing the eternal hills to erect the chapel of his dreams. He arrived in Vancouver in May 1920, to a willing congregation and plans were quickly laid. 

Lt.-Col. Fallis' friend Chris Spencer, CBE, advised him that in order for there to be national significance to the chapel, he should go across Canada and interview lieutenant governors, premiers, statesmen and leaders of each province, asking them to underwrite the windows. Saskatchewan was the eighth province he visited.

In Saskatchewan, Lt.-Col. Fallis went to Saskatoon first to interview His Honour the Lieutenant Governor, H.E. Munroe, who had been a Lieutenant-Colonel in the Canadian Army Medical Corps overseas, and an army friend. He was a great supporter of the soldiers being honoured in Canadian Memorial Chapel. He sent Lt.-Col. Fallis to interview President Murray of the University of Saskatchewan and no man could have been more deeply interested in the project. He felt that Scotland had produced more great men for its population than possibly any other part of the world because memorials all over the land told each rising Scottish generation of the greatness of their past. He subscribed to the Saskatchewan window not only in his own name, but in the name of his late great friend, Judge McLorg, who had done so much for northern Saskatchewan.

Colonel Robert Wallace Caswell, another good friend who had been in Lt.-Col. Fallis’ old battalion of 1915, made arrangements for Lt.-Col. Fallis to speak to the Canadian Club of which he was president. Friends in Regina were T.D. Brown, KC, Colonel J.A. Cross, DSO, and David Balfour, who were especially loyal in their help. In Moose Jaw, Lt.-Col. Fallis had the support of Reverend Captain Edward Church who had been a most successful chaplain in France. He took Lt.-Col. Fallis into his home and made appointments for him to meet a group of good citizens.

Depicted in Saskatchewan Window - “Peter’s Vision” symbolizes Universal Brotherhood. Peter dreams of all the things he fears about the Gentiles, yet God admonishes him saying, “How can anything I have made be profane?” Peter then sees God’s blessing fall upon the Gentiles and understands that the vision of God’s peace is meant for all. The historical events on this window portray the surrender at Batoche in 1885, and the Indian buffalo hunt. The end of WW I saw the formation of the League of Nations, an institution that also had as its goal a vision of peace for all. Its successor, the United Nations, continues to pursue that goal in a world that refuses to reject military might as its principal form of statesmanship.

"BROTHERHOOD" "GOD HATH SHEWED ME THAT I SHOULD NOT CALL ANY MAN COMMON OR UNCLEAN."

Surrender of
Batoche
July 1885.

The Indian
Buffalo Hunt

Saskatchewan

TO THE GLORY OF GOD AND IN MEMORY OF THE MEN OF THE
PROVINCE OF SASKATCHEWAN WHO GAVE THEIR LIVES IN THE WORLD WAR.