The Canadian Battlefield Memorials Restoration Project was a C$30-million Government of Canada capital project that aimed to restore and rehabilitate Canada's memorial sites in France and Belgium, in order to maintain and present them in a respectful and dignified manner.
Canada's thirteen World War I memorials were erected to honour and remember the achievements and sacrifices of Canadians and Newfoundlanders during the Great War. Collectively, these memorials are symbolic of the Canadians and Newfoundlanders who gave their lives during the First World War, and are physical reminders that their sacrifices and victories must never be forgotten.
In May 2001, the Government of Canada announced the $30-million restoration project. The repair work required to rehabilitate these memorial sites, now an average of 75 years old, is beyond the scope of routine maintenance. The program of work is being carried out in collaboration with Public Works and Government Services Canada, the Commonwealth War Graves Commission and other specialists, consultants and military historians. The work is separated into four project areas, with the restoration of the Canadian National Vimy Memorial being the main priority.
On April 2, 2007 restoration of the last memorial site, the Canadian National Vimy Memorial, was officially completed and the site was re-opened to the public.
The Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) is an intergovernmental organisation of six independent member states whose principal function is to mark, record and maintain the graves and places of commemoration of Commonwealth of Nations military service members who died in the two World Wars. The Commission is also responsible for commemorating Commonwealth civilians who died as a result of enemy action during World War II. The Commission was founded by Sir Fabian Ware and constituted through Royal Charter in 1917 named the Imperial War Graves Commission. The change to the present name took place in 1960.
Vimy is a commune in the Pas-de-Calais department in the Hauts-de-France region of France. It is located 3.8 kilometers (2.4 mi) east of the Canadian National Vimy Memorial dedicated to the Battle of Vimy Ridge and the Canadian soldiers who were killed during the war. The Memorial is also the site of two Canadian cemeteries.
Walter Seymour Allward, was a Canadian monumental sculptor best known for the Canadian National Vimy Memorial. He has been widely praised for his "original sense of spatial composition, his mastery of the classical form and his brilliant craftsmanship".
Givenchy-en-Gohelle is a commune in the Pas-de-Calais department in the Hauts-de-France region of France. It is located 1.8 kilometres (1.1 mi) north of the Canadian National Vimy Memorial dedicated to the Battle of Vimy Ridge and the missing First World War Canadian soldiers with no known grave; the Memorial is also the site of two Canadian cemeteries. The village was destroyed during World War I but was rebuilt after the war.
The Canadian Tomb of the Unknown Soldier is located before the National War Memorial in Confederation Square, Ottawa, Ontario. The culmination of a project begun by the Royal Canadian Legion, the tomb was added to the war memorial in 2000 and holds the remains of an unidentified Canadian soldier who died in France during World War I. The soldier was selected from a cemetery in the vicinity of Vimy Ridge, the site of a famous Canadian battle.
The Canadian National Vimy Memorial is a war memorial site in France dedicated to the memory of Canadian Expeditionary Force members killed during the First World War. It also serves as the place of commemoration for Canadian soldiers of the First World War killed or presumed dead in France who have no known grave. The monument is the centrepiece of a 100-hectare (250-acre) preserved battlefield park that encompasses a portion of the ground over which the Canadian Corps made their assault during the initial Battle of Vimy Ridge offensive of the Battle of Arras.
The St. Julien Memorial is a Canadian war memorial and small commemorative park located in the village of Saint-Julien, Langemark, Belgium. The memorial commemorates the Canadian First Division's participation in the Second Battle of Ypres of World War I which included fighting in the face of the first poison gas attacks along the Western Front. Frederick Chapman Clemesha's sculpture, the Brooding Soldier, was selected to serve as the central feature of the monument following a design competition organized by the Canadian Battlefield Monument Commission in 1920.
The Dury Memorial is a World War I Canadian war memorial that commemorates the actions of the Canadian Corps in the Second Battle of Arras, particularly their breakthrough at the Drocourt–Quéant Line switch of the Hindenburg Line just south of the town of Dury. The Drocourt–Quéant Line was a main position in the German Army's defensive position in the area. The action took place on 2 and 3 September 1918 during a period known as the Hundred Days Offensive or Canada's Hundred Days. Particularly noteworthy for such a brief battle was that seven Canadians earned a Victoria Cross on 2 September during the battle.
The Le Quesnel Memorial is a Canadian war memorial that commemorates the actions of the Canadian Corps during the 1918 Battle of Amiens during World War I. The battle marked the beginning of a 96-day period known as "Canada's Hundred Days" that saw the crumbling of the German Army and ultimately the Armistice that ended the war. The memorial is located just to the southwest of the village of Le Quesnel, on the road between Amiens and Roye, in northern France.
The Courcelette Memorial is a Canadian war memorial that commemorates the actions of the Canadian Corps in the final two and a half months of the infamous four-and-a-half-month-long Somme Offensive of the First World War. The Canadians participated at the Somme from early September to the British offensives end in mid-November 1916, engaging in several of the battles-within-the-battle of the Somme, including actions at: Flers-Courcelette, Thiepval Ridge, the Ancre Heights, the Ancre as well as a small role in providing relief to the First Australian Imperial Force in the final days of the Battle of Pozières. The battles on the Somme were the first in which all four Canadian divisions participated in the same battle, although not together in a cohesive formation. The Canadian divisions suffered over 24,000 casualties.
The Bourlon Wood Memorial is a Canadian war memorial that commemorates the actions of the Canadian Corps during the final months of the First World War; a period also known as Canada's Hundred Days, part of the Hundred Days Offensive. Particularly celebrated are the Canadian Corps crossing of the Canal du Nord, their flushing the German forces from Bourlon and Bourlon Wood and the 'Pursuit to Mons' through Cambrai, Denain, Valenciennes and into Mons on 11 November 1918. It is located adjacent to the town of Bourlon.
The Passchendaele Canadian Memorial is a Canadian war memorial that commemorates the actions of the Canadian Corps in the Second Battle of Passchendaele of World War I. The memorial is located on the former site of Crest Farm, an objective captured by the 4th Canadian Division during the assault of 30 October 1917.
The Canadian Hill 62 Memorial is a war memorial that commemorates the actions of the Canadian Corps in defending the southern stretches of the Ypres Salient between April and August 1916 including actions in battle at the St Eloi Craters, Hill 62, Mount Sorrel and Sanctuary Wood. These battles marked the first occasion in which Canadian divisions engaged in planned offensive operations during World War I. In those actions the Canadians reconquered vital high-ground positions that denied the Germans a commanding view of the town of Ypres itself.
The Military Museums is a reorganization of the former Museum of the Regiments in Calgary, Alberta, announced by Sophie, Countess of Wessex, on June 3, 2006. The new museum comprises the former Museum of the Regiments as well as the relocated Naval Museum of Alberta and an Air Force Wing consisting of artifacts currently being acquired.
The Beaumont-Hamel Newfoundland Memorial is a memorial site in France dedicated to the commemoration of Dominion of Newfoundland forces members who were killed during World War I. The 74-acre (300,000 m2) preserved battlefield park encompasses the grounds over which the Newfoundland Regiment made their unsuccessful attack on 1 July 1916 during the first day of the Battle of the Somme.
Canadian war memorials are buildings, monuments, and statues that commemorate the armed actions in the territory encompassing modern Canada, the role of the Canadian military in conflicts and peacekeeping operations, and Canadians who died or were injured in a war. Much of this military history of Canada is commemorated today with memorials across the country and around the world. Canadian memorials commemorate the sacrifices made as early as the Seven Years' War to the modern day War on Terror. As Newfoundland was a British Dominion until joining Confederation in 1949, there are several monuments in Newfoundland and Labrador and abroad which were dedicated to Newfoundland servicemen and women.
The Canadian Battlefields Memorials Commission was a special commission established by the House of Commons of Canada, on the recommendations of the British Battle Exploits Memorials Committee. The Canadian House of Commons established the committee in September 1920 with the mandate of selecting and establishing First World War memorial sites in France and Belgium.
The Sir John Monash Centre is a museum and interpretive centre that commemorates Australian servicemen and women who served on the Western Front during the First World War. The centre, located near the village of Villers-Bretonneux (Somme) in northern France, is set behind the Villers–Bretonneux Australian National Memorial and within the military cemetery. The centre opened in April 2018.
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