Saint John Memorial Statues

In 1922, the Municipal Chapter of the Imperial Order of the Daughters of the Empire in Saint John, New Brunswick held a meeting to organize a memorial to honour the city’s war dead. An ad hoc committee held a design competition and chose a design by a Canadian sculptor, Alfred Howell. It was a figure of Winged Victory standing on a simple granite shaft with a second mourning figure below, resting her hands on a sword. At the mourning figure’s feet, there was a soldier’s helmet with a spray of laurel leaves. The St John War Memorial was erected for $20,000 ($250,000 today) in Saint John in perpetual memory of those who paid the supreme sacrifice during the Great War.

The lower statue, representing mourning, was covered in a massive Union Jack which General Macdonell had the honour of pulling off on June 11, 1925 with the words, “I now reverently unveil this War Memorial to the glory of those citizens of Saint John who served in the Army, the Navy, the Air Force, or as nursing sisters who lost their lives in the Great War.” Once the memorial was unveiled, the band played, “O Canada,” the buglers called the Last Post, the piper sounded the Reveille and the choirs sang “Abide with Me.” Canon Lawrence prefaced his dedicatory prayer by saying that Saint John is a good place to live in, thanks to the sacrifices of the men whom this memorial remembered. “Be it ours,” he said, “to make [Saint John] what they would like it to be.”

The War Memorial Committee erected the monument at the head of King Street, which is in the centre of town and close to many prominent buildings and institutions. It was erected beside a water fountain erected in 1885 by the local branch of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union in memory of the Loyalist women who had settled in the city.

On June 24, 1925, the City of Saint John formally took over the War Memorial and would be responsible for the care and maintenance “for all time.”

Inscription

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In 1922, the Municipal Chapter of the Imperial Order of the Daughters of the Empire in Saint John, New Brunswick held a meeting to organize a memorial to honour the city’s war dead. An ad hoc committee held a design competition and chose a design by a Canadian sculptor, Alfred Howell. It was a figure of Winged Victory standing on a simple granite shaft with a second mourning figure below, resting her hands on a sword. At the mourning figure’s feet, there was a soldier’s helmet with a spray of laurel leaves. The St John War Memorial was erected for $20,000 ($250,000 today) in Saint John in perpetual memory of those who paid the supreme sacrifice during the Great War.

The lower statue, representing mourning, was covered in a massive Union Jack which General Macdonell had the honour of pulling off on June 11, 1925 with the words, “I now reverently unveil this War Memorial to the glory of those citizens of Saint John who served in the Army, the Navy, the Air Force, or as nursing sisters who lost their lives in the Great War.” Once the memorial was unveiled, the band played, “O Canada,” the buglers called the Last Post, the piper sounded the Reveille and the choirs sang “Abide with Me.” Canon Lawrence prefaced his dedicatory prayer by saying that Saint John is a good place to live in, thanks to the sacrifices of the men whom this memorial remembered. “Be it ours,” he said, “to make [Saint John] what they would like it to be.”

The War Memorial Committee erected the monument at the head of King Street, which is in the centre of town and close to many prominent buildings and institutions. It was erected beside a water fountain erected in 1885 by the local branch of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union in memory of the Loyalist women who had settled in the city.

On June 24, 1925, the City of Saint John formally took over the War Memorial and would be responsible for the care and maintenance “for all time.”

Le texte de l’inscription figure dans la section anglaise.