According to McGill University records, the first Canadian dentists to go overseas in WW1 were with No. 3 Canadian General Hospital (McGill), which was organized in McGill in early 1915. A plaque in memory of three graduates who died on active service in WW1 is on the main floor of the Strathcona Building on the McGill campus, 3640 rue University.
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The Mount Royal Club is a private club at 1175 Sherbrooke St W in Montreal. In the staircase, a bronze plaque memorializes 15 men who died in WW1 – one assumes Club members or their sons.
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It’s Labour Day in Canada and the US … a day to celebrate workers. Like other groups in society, many financial institutions saw fit to memorialize their employees who had served in the war.
The Bank of Montreal is the oldest bank in Canada (founded in 1817). The Montreal main branch at 119 rue Saint-Jacques – built when banks were temples – dominates one side of Place d’Armes, the centre of the city’s financial district in the early 20th century. Tributes to the fallen employees of three banks are inside: the Bank of Montreal, as well as the Merchants Bank of Canada and Molsons Bank that the Bank of Montreal acquired in the 1920s. Continue reading
In the early 20th century, St James St in Old Montreal was the heart of the city’s financial district. When the Royal Bank of Canada built its new headquarters at 360 St James St W in 1928 (the tallest building in the British Empire at the time), the bank honoured its employees who had died in WW1, their names listed on two tablets in the main banking hall. Continue reading
It’s Labour Day in Canada and the US … a day to celebrate workers.
The entrance to the Bell Canada Building at 1050, Côte du Beaver-Hall, Montréal (between rue Belmont and rue de la Gauchetière O) is flanked by the bell logo of the Bell Telephone Company of Canada. Completed in 1929, it was once the company headquarters. Enter the brass doors into the entry staircase, flanked by bronze plaques to Bell’s Montreal employees who served and died in two world wars. Continue reading
The Sun Life Building* overlooks Dorchester Square (on boul René-Lévesque between rue Metcalfe and rue Mansfield) in Montreal. Step inside the main entrance on Metcalfe into a soaring lobby of marble and brass. Look up between the Corinthian columns to check the time as you move into the elevator lobby – beneath the brass clock, the years of WW1 and WW2 and “we will remember them.” Continue reading
In addition to the monument at its head office in Toronto, the Canadian Bank of Commerce honoured employees from each branch who served in WW1. I’ve come across some of the branch plaques in Ottawa and Montreal, in what is now the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce.
Happy 2018! Have you resolved to get into better shape this year? Here’s a war memorial for you.
The Sir Arthur Currie Memorial Gymnasium is at 475, ave des Pins ouest, in Montreal. McGill University students were making good use of the facilities on the day I visited. Continue reading
To the glory of God and the memory of the immortal dead who brought us honour and peace.
À la gloire du Dieu au souvenir des morts immortels à qui nous devons l’honneur et la paix.
Montreal’s La Fontaine Park is the site of a monument to French soldiers from Montreal and Canadian volunteers in the French Army who died in WW1 (and later in WW2). Place du Souvenir-français is a quiet area of the park between Émile-Duployé and Papineau Avenues, on the north side of Sherbrooke Street East. Continue reading
Great War 100 Reads 