Winged Victory
Municipality/Province: Montréal (Westmount), QC
Memorial number: 24075-002
Type: Shaft, statue - bronze
Address: 1100 Canadiens-des-Montréal Avenue
Location: Windsor Station
GPS coordinates: Lat: 45.4972706 Long: -73.5679289
Submitted by: Michel Litalien. Victoria Edwards.
Winged Victory was erected by the Canadian Pacific Railway in the memory of its employees who were killed during the First World War. It was unveiled by the Governor General Julian Byng, 1st Viscount Byng of Vimy on 28 April 1922.
The Canadian Pacific Railway commissioned three Winged Victory statues from Montreal sculptor Coeur de Lion MacCarthy to commemorate the 1,116 employees it lost in the First World War. All three statues were unveiled simultaneously on the same date. The statue depicts an angel carrying a deceased soldier to heaven at the moment of his death. The angel holds a laurel wreath, the symbol of victory, in her upraised hand. The other two identical memorials are in Manitoba and Vancouver.
After the Second World War, the date 1939-1945 was added to the inscription.
Coeur de Lion MacCarthy, the son of sculptor Hamilton McCarthy, produced numerous commemorative works after the First World War, including: Winged Victory in British Columbia; Great War Memorial and Lethbridge Cenotaph in Alberta; Winged Victory in Manitoba; County of Brome War Memorial, Verdun Victory Memorial, Monument to the Brave and Winged Victory in Quebec; Clifton Hill War Memorial and Woodstock Cenotaph in Ontario.
Inscription found on memorial
TO COMMEMORATE THOSE IN THE SERVICE OF THE CANADIAN PACIFIC RAILWAY COMPANY WHO, AT THE CALL OF KING AND COUNTRY, LEFT ALL THAT WAS DEAR TO THEM, ENDURED HARDSHIP, FACED DANGER AND FINALLY PASSED OUT OF SIGHT OF MEN BY THE PATH OF DUTY AND SELF SACRIFICE, GIVING UP THEIR OWN LIVES THAT OTHERS MIGHT LIVE IN FREEDOM. LET THOSE WHO CAME AFTER SEE TO IT THAT THEIR NAMES BE NOT FORGOTTEN.
1914 — 1918 1939 — 1945
Street view
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