For a few weeks this August, Great War 100 Reads is revisiting some sites, to explore additional or altered elements of remembrance.
On a sunny morning, the memorial window in St Andrew’s Church throws colourful light throughout the sanctuary. On the opposite wall, a bronze plaque lists those with some attachment to the congregation who were killed and those who served.
Honour and Loving Memory to those who died and Grateful Tribute to those who, daring to die, survived.
The 16 who died are listed in the centre panel. (Their names are easier to read on the memorial window.) The Service Roll is on the outer panels. The Church now documents those who died in the Lives Remembered section of its website.
One woman is named amongst the dead: Matron Margaret Heggie Smith. Six women are amongst those who served: Myra Goodeve; Flora C Idlington; Amy MacNish; Marion C Ruddick; Catherine C Stronach and Jean Stronach. Most were nursing sisters with the Canadian Army Medical Corps. Idlington was a nurse with the Edinburgh and East of Scotland Branch of the British Red Cross. I can find no records for C Stronach.
St Andrew’s Presbyterian Church is at the corner of Wellington and Kent Streets in downtown Ottawa.
Great War 100 Reads 