A small cenotaph sits in Tryon People’s Cemetery on PEI Rd 10 about ½ km from the Trans-Canada Highway on Prince Edward Island. It honours three local men killed in WW1 and 20 who served.
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This Saturday (15 August) is National Acadian Day (Journée de la fête nationale des Acadiens) in Canada, honouring the history and culture of the descendants of French colonists who settled in Acadia in the 17th and 18th centuries.
After WW1, parishioners in Baie-Egmont (Egmont Bay), Route 11, Prince Edward Island erected a war memorial in front of Saint-Philippe-et-Saint-Jacques Catholic Church. When exactly? I can find no record. Perhaps when the fourth church on the site opened in 1923? Continue reading
St Eleanors is now a suburban neighbourhood in the northeast part of Summerside, Prince Edward Island. In the early part of the 20th century, it was a rural farming community.
A rough-cut granite memorial stands in a small park on the northeast corner of the intersection of North, South, East and West Drives, dedicated “TO OUR FALLEN HEROES 1914 – 1918.” Nine men are named (with some spelling errors). Continue reading
Memorial Square, originally Dominion Square, is the oldest public park in Summerside, Prince Edward Island. The pretty park with meandering paths is bordered by Summer, Spring and Church Streets. The war memorial is the focal point at the centre of the block.
A bronze soldier going over the top, rifle in hand, tops a granite base. Emanuel Hahn was the sculptor, for the Thomson Monument Company. Another copy of Hahn’s sculpture tops the war memorial in Saint-Lambert, QC. Continue reading
Victoria Community Hall was built in 1915 at the corner of Howard and Main Streets in Victoria-by-the-Sea, on the south shore of Prince Edward Island. During WW1, it was used a recruitment hall. Following the war, the School District of Victoria mounted a plaque on the east side of the hall “in honor of the boys who served in the Great War of 1914-1918.” Two were killed in action (Heath MacQuarrie and Arthur Collett), one died on military service (Bertram Penpraise). In addition to 31 other men who served, two nurses are named: Lucy Howatt and Olga Myers. Continue reading
Wheatley River is a settlement in Queens County, Prince Edward Island, between Hunter River and Rustico where Routes 224, 251 and 243 meet. Like many communities, Wheatley River remembered its citizens who died in WW1 (and later WW2) on a local war memorial.
Wheatley River – Lest we forget – Built of a people’s love to the memory of our heroic dead, 1914-1918.
Twelve WW1 names are on the memorial. Six names are listed as killed in action, three died of wounds, three died from war services. Continue reading
A plaque on the wall of the Summerside Armoury at 33 Summer Street, Summerside (now home to the International Fox Museum and Hall of Fame) is dedicated to Georgina Pope.
Cecily Jane Georgina Fane Pope was born in 1862, the daughter of William Pope (a Father of Confederation) and Helen DesBrisay. Georgina was one of nine children. She trained as a nurse in NY, then worked in the US before being appointed to serve with a contingent of Canadian nurses 1899, in support of the British Army during the South African War. Continue reading
Charlottetown’s Province House, home of the Prince Edward Island legislature in Queen Square, hosted the Fathers of Confederation in 1864, one of the key meetings that formed the terms of Canadian confederation. On the north front, where Great George St meets Grafton St, the Soldiers’ Memorial was dedicated in 1925. Continue reading
Today is National Acadian Day (Journée de la fête nationale des Acadiens) in Canada, honouring the history and culture of the descendants of French colonists who settled in Acadia in the 17th and 18th centuries.
Historian and folklorist Georges Arsenault kindly offered this photo (the winter one) and information about the monument to those in the Mont Carmel (Prince Edward Island) parish killed in WW1.
The archway of fieldstone embedded in concrete was built by Cajétan Arsenault of Saint-Raphael. It forms an imposing entrance to the cemetery for Notre Dame du Mont Carmel Church and frames a view to the Northumberland Strait beyond. The family names of the 10 men leave no doubt about the Acadian roots of the community: Arsenault, Gallant, Poirier, Richard. Continue reading
A comment on last Monday’s memorial to the Broad brothers at Calgary’s Central United Church got me thinking about how communities came together to show respect to those who had served in the war.
It seems that it was many years after the war before plaques were erected. In this case, 1923. Is there any explanation of the delay between the end of the war in 1918 and these expressions of remembrance? Did people, at first, feel their grief so profoundly that they could not think of things like plaques and statues? Was commemoration encouraged by the government or Church in the 1920s and we are seeing the results of that?
Good question. Several reasons, I suspect. Continue reading
Great War 100 Reads 