Monday Monuments and Memorials – Commonwealth Memorial Tablets, France

Imperial (Commonwealth) War Graves Commission memorial tablet in Amiens Cathedral

Imperial (Commonwealth) War Graves Commission memorial tablet in Soissons Cathedral

Imperial (Commonwealth) War Graves Commission memorial tablet in Beauvais Cathedral

Imperial (Commonwealth) War Graves Commission memorial tablet in Notre Dame Cathedral, Paris

Starting in 1923 and 1936, the Imperial (now Commonwealth) War Graves Commission erected memorial tablets in several French and Belgian cathedrals, in memory of the British Empire dead of WW1.

The first of these was placed in Amiens Cathedral, bearing the Royal Coat of Arms and dedicated to the 600,000 men of the armies of Great Britain and Ireland. Subsequent tablets incorporated the arms or insignia of Australia, Canada, India, Newfoundland, New Zealand and South Africa.

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Monday Monuments and Memorials – Waterlilies – Nymphéas, Le Musée de l’Orangerie, Paris

Waterlilies – Nymphéas, Musée de l’Orangerie, Paris

Waterlilies – Nymphéas, Le Musée de l’Orangerie, Paris … a daytime view

Monet’s Waterlilies at the Musée de l’Orangerie – a gift to symbolize peace

Monet’s Waterlilies, Musée de l’Orangerie, Paris

On 12 November 1918, the day after the Armistice, the painter Claude Monet wrote to his friend, French Prime Minister Georges Clemenceau, offering two monumental paintings of waterlilies to the French nation as a symbol of peace. Two eventually became eight. In 1927, the panels were installed in two purpose-built oval rooms in the Musée de l’Orangerie.

Armistice Day, 1918 … Remembrance Day, 2018

Peace Tower, Ottawa (no, there is not this much snow in Ottawa on 11 November)

At the 11^th hour on the 11^th day of the 11^th month, when the guns of the Great War at last fell silent, the fury of conflict was replaced by a deafening silence. In that fragile gap between the sounds of dying and the cries of relief, we were faced with all we had done, all we had lost, all we had sacrificed.

In that silence, we met a truth so obvious and so terrifying we swore we would never take up arms again.

“One owes respect to the living,” said Voltaire. “To the dead, one owes only the truth.”

We vowed never to forget.

Governor General David Johnston, 11 November 2014

Monday Monuments and Memorials – National War Memorial: The Response, Ottawa

Canada’s National War Memorial, Confederation Square, Ottawa

Canada’s National War Memorial, Confederation Square, Ottawa

One of two nurses on Canada’s National War Memorial – The Response, Ottawa

One of two nurses on Canada’s National War Memorial – The Response, Ottawa

Canada’s National War Memorial – The Response, Ottawa

Bronze figures on Canada’s National War Memorial – The Response, Ottawa

Surmounting the arch, through which the armed forces of the nation are passing forward, are the figures of peace and freedom. To win peace and secure freedom, Canada’s sons and daughters enrolled for service during the Great War. For the cause of peace and freedom 60,000 Canadians gave their lives, and a still larger number suffered impairment of body or mind. This sacrifice the National Memorial holds in remembrance for our own and succeeding generations.

This memorial, however, does more than commemorate a great event in the past. It has a message for all generations and for all countries— the message which called for Canada’s response. Not by chance both the crowning figures of peace and freedom appear side by side. Peace and freedom cannot long be separated. It is well that we have in one of the world’s capitals, a visible reminder of so great a truth. Without freedom there can be no enduring peace, and without peace no enduring freedom.

George VI, dedication of the National War Memorial, 21 May 1939

Monday Monuments and Memorials – Terlincthun British Cemetery, Wimille, France

Napoleon on the Colonne de la Grande Armée, watching over Terlincthun British Cemetery

Terlincthun – Special Memorial to 51 soldiers’ bodies found in 1982

Graves of Barrow, Ingram, King, McKay & Young – 5 of 9 women buried in Terlincthun

Terlincthun – memorial to 6 soldiers whose graves were lost

Terlincthun – graves of German prisoners of war

Terlincthun, between Boulogne and Wimereux, was along the line of hospitals and rest camps established near the coast of France during WW1. Terlincthun British Cemetery was begun June 1918. The central path of the cemetery aligns with the nearby Colonne de la Grande Armée, so the statue of Napoleon appears to be keeping watch over those buried there.

Monday Monuments and Memorials – St Sever Cemeteries, Rouen, France

St Sever Cemetery, Rouen – graves of Branfoot, Dickson, Knox, Pearton, Riggall & Smith Lee

St Sever Cemetery Extension – graves of Armstrong, Bousfield, Gosling, Johnston, Llewellyn & Steele

St Sever Cemetery and St Sever Cemetery Extension are located in a large communal cemetery in the southern Rouen suburbs, near the sites of several WW1 Allied hospitals and camps.* WW1 burials from Commonwealth forces number 11430 in the cemetery and cemetery extension.

Looking for clusters of women’s war graves? Look no further than the hospital sites. The seven women buried in St Sever Cemetery and the six buried in St Sever Cemetery Extension all died of illness or illness-related accident. Two were nursing sisters, six were VADs, three worked with Queen Mary’s Army Auxiliary Corps, one with the YMCA, and one was a civilian volunteer.

Monday Monuments and Memorials – Abbeville Communal Cemetery Extension, Abbeville, France

Abbeville Communal Cemetery Extension – Graves of QMAAC workers Caswell, Parker, Moores, Blaikley, Watson, Campbell, Grant, Thomasson and Connor

Queen Mary’s Army Auxiliary Corps – crest on CWGC graves

Abbeville, on the Somme River northwest of Amiens, was a strategic Allied communications and hospital centre in WW1. In spring and summer 1918, Abbeville was the target of German air raids. In the early morning of 30 May 1918, Abbeville and Doullens were hit. At Abbeville, a bomb hit a protection trench, killing nine women in Queen Mary’s Army Auxiliary Corps (QMAAC). The victims were buried with military honours in Abbeville Communal Cemetery Extension.

Monday Monuments and Memorials – Edith Cavell figurine, Canadian War Museum, Ottawa

Edith Cavell crested china souvenir, Canadian War Museum

British nurse Edith Cavell was executed on October 12, 1915 for helping Allied soldiers escape occupied Belgium. Her death became a rallying cry for the Allies. Her name was memorialized in many ways.

Monday Monuments and Memorials – Houghton brothers, St. Mark’s Anglican Church, Niagara-on-the-Lake, ON

In loving memory of Robert Charles Houghton & Tom Hadley Houghton

Eight St Mark’s parishioners who died in WW1

Plaque names 70 St Mark’s parishioners who served in WW1, book of remembrance for those who died.

For a church established in 1792 in Niagara-on-the-Lake, the War of 1812 looms larger in its history than WW1. Yet St Mark’s Church, at 41 Byron St, has several WW1 markers to honour its parishioners who served. The name Houghton figures again and again – all sons of Emma Hadley and Joseph Houghton.

Monday Monuments and Memorials – Conscription Riots, Spring 1918, Quebec City

Québec, Printemps 1918, by Aline Martineau

Québec, Printemps 1918 – events in Quebec City

Québec, Printemps 1918 marks the place of one of the demonstrations in Quebec City protesting the Canadian government’s 1917 decision to conscript men into the army. The creation of sculptor Aline Martineau, it was unveiled on 4 September 1998 at the intersection of Saint-Vallier, Saint-Joseph and Bagot in Quebec City.