A Celtic cross tops an eight-sided fieldstone cairn on Main St N (County Rd 34) at Elm St in Alexandria, ON, in memory of those from Glengarry County* who died in WW1.† Known as the Glengarry cenotaph, it was sited on the highest elevation where it could be seen by all passing through the county.
The memorial was unveiled on 1 October 1923 by Governor General Viscount Byng of Vimy. It was built by the McIntosh Company of Toronto at a cost of $8000.
The names and the inscription in English, Scottish Gaelic and French – I REMEMBER | HA CUIMHUICH AGAIM | JE ME SOUVIENS – show the Scottish and French roots of the community.
A historical plaque erected in November 2020 gives some of the history:
Following the armistice in 1918, Alexandria lawyer JA (Jack Greenfield) Macdonell formed a committee to establish a memorial to the 172 men and one woman of Glengarry who lost their lives in the First World War. Fundraising was launched in Alexandria by Lt-Gen Sir Arthur Currie, commander of the Canadian Corps in France, while Alexandria newspaperman Lt-Col AGF Macdonald‡ donated an acre of land in memory of his son Fraser, killed on the Somme in November 1916. The memorial soaring Celtic cross on a fieldstone base, was designed by Ottawa architect Colborne Meredith and unveiled in 1923 by Governor General Viscount Byng of Vimy. A Second World War plaque was unveiled by Governor General Vincent Massey in 1957.
While the memorial is dedicated “to the glory of God and in memory of the men of Glengarry who gave their lives in the Great War,” a nursing sister is listed amongst the dead. Janet McIntosh was a nursing sister with the US Red Cross. She died of influenza in Illinois in 1919.
*now part of Stormont, Dundas and Glengarry United Counties
† and later WW2
‡ and his wife, Marie Justine Eugenie (Hubert) Macdonald
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