There are currently 6,293 war memorials in Canada registered with the National Inventory of Military Memorials, which is under the Canadian Department of Veterans Affairs.[1] There are also war memorials across the world, some of which are operated by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, which are dedicated to Canada as well as the Commonwealth members. There currently are 17 in France, six in Belgium, four in the United Kingdom, two in Afghanistan and South Korea, and one each in Egypt, Hong Kong, Italy, Malta, the Netherlands, Singapore, Turkey, and the United Arab Emirates.
There are few examples of memorial art created by Indigenous peoples before the late nineteenth century. One of the best-preserved memorials is in Áísínai’pi, or Writing-on-Stone Provincial Park, in southern Alberta. This UNESCO World Heritage Site houses an extensive series of small-scale petroglyphs incised on the sandstone bluffs of the Milk River, a number of them dating to thousands of years ago.[2]
There exists a number of memorials commemorating events that occurred prior to Canadian Confederation in 1867. In addition to pre-Confederation war memorials, a number of communities in Ontario also have cannons originating from the Crimean War.[3][4][5] However, these cannons are war trophies gifted to various communities in Upper Canada after the conflict; and do not serve as a memorial. Prior to the twentieth century, Canadian memorials were dedicated to great leaders and victories, not the named deaths of ordinary service personnel.[2]
Honours University of Toronto student volunteers who fell during the Battle of Ridgeway Lime Ridge, or died of wounds received in action or from disease contracted in service while defending her frontier in June 1866.
The park has a cenotaph, a statue of a First World War soldier and a statue of R.L. Boyle, which is dedicated to all Albertans who served during the Second Boer War.[9]
A memorial by David Clendining to animals (mainly mules, horse, dogs, pigeons) that have served for Canada in military conflicts since World War I and is located in Confederation Park
"Bronze Angel", by sculptor, Coeur Lion MacCarthy, war memorial depicts the angel of victory raising up a young soldier to heaven at the moment of his death, 1921 commemorates 1,115 Canadian Pacific Railway employees killed during the First World War erected at the Canadian Pacific Railway stations.[11]
A sheltered space in the National Cemetery of Canada that honours the memory of Canadian servicemen who died in Canada and the United States and who were cremated.[11]
Located on the grounds of Harbord Collegiate Institute, a public secondary school, it includes two sculptures. The first sculpture was erected in 1921 and was dedicated to those who served in the First World War; and a second sculpture dedicated to those who served in the Second World War, completed in 2007.
Dedicated to the students of Malvern Collegiate Institute that served in the First World War. Malvern Collegiate Institute is a public secondary school.
Dedicated to members of the Canadian Forces who served in the Italian campaign of the Second World War. The sculpture features a 3D-topographical map of Ortona, site of the Battle of Ortona. Located within the sculpture garden of Nathan Phillips Square.
Designed by Francis Henry Portnall (1928), this tall granite plinth incorporating a public clock face is a part of the City Hall Square.[13] though it was originally located in the middle of the intersection of 21st Street and 2nd Avenue[14]
The Vimy Memorial Bandshell in Kiwanis Park was built in 1937 to honour the men and women that served in the First World War at the Battle of Vimy Ridge.[15]
Dedicated to those killed while serving in the Royal Regiment of Canadian Artillery. A 25-pounder gun used by the regiment during the Second World War is situated next to the marble memorial.[22]
Located in the Peace Tower, it holds all eight volumes of the Books of Remembrance, recording every Canadian killed in service, from Canada's first overseas campaign, the Nile Expedition, to the present. The eighth book was added to the Memorial Chamber in 2019, commemorating some 1,600 Canadians and First Nation Crown allies who died in service during the War of 1812.
Honours those who died in WWI, WWII, Korean War, military training, peacetime operations, nurses who served, including a plaque honouring Saskatchewan War Brides who married Canadian service men.
Canadian Expeditionary Force members killed during the First World War and Canadian soldiers killed or presumed dead in France who have no known grave. The memorial was designed by Walter Seymour Allward, and is located on the site of the Easter 1917 Battle of Vimy Ridge.[2]
The Airfield Memorial is dedicated to Canadians who have fallen in the War in Afghanistan and the Inuksuk to those Canadians, as well as other coalition members who were killed in fighting in Afghanistan.
Celebrating the liberation of the Netherlands by Canadians, featuring the sculpture Man with Two Hats, identical to one in Ottawa.
Legacy
The 31 paintings of Canadian War Memorials by F.A. (Tex) Dawson were unveiled just outside Currie Hall in the Mackenzie Building at Royal Military College of Canada in Kingston on Wednesday 7 April 2010. Jack Pike, the chairman of the Royal Military College of Canada Museum's board of directors, said they had found a permanent and appropriate home. "We are delighted to have these paintings," he said in front of the assemblage of paintings, each representing a different memorial in a different setting and different seasons. "These are symbolic of sacrifice and remembrance and they do the whole thing so well."[26]
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