Le Quesnel Memorial

Last updated

Canadian Le Quesnel (Battle of Amiens) Memorial
Canada
Le quesnel memorial.JPG
Canadian Le Quesnel (Battle of Amiens) Memorial
For the Canadian participation in the Battle of Amiens between 8 and 11 August 1918 and commemoration of the Canadian dead in that battle.
Location 49°46′29″N2°36′34″E / 49.77472°N 2.60944°E / 49.77472; 2.60944
near 
Le Quesnel, France
The Memorial's inscription reads:
THE CANADIAN CORPS ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND STRONG ON 8TH AUGUST 1918 ATTACKED BETWEEN HOURGES AND VILLERS-BRETONNEUX AND DROVE THE ENEMY EASTWARD FOR EIGHT MILES

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 (from which it takes its name), on the road between Amiens and Roye, in northern France.

Contents

Monument

Selection

At the end of the war, The Imperial War Graves Commission granted Canada eight sites - five in France and three in Belgium - on which to erect memorials. Each site represented a significant Canadian engagement in the war and for this reason it was originally decided that each battlefield would be treated equally and graced with identical monuments. [1] The Canadian Battlefields Memorials Commission was formed in November 1920 to discuss the process and conditions for a competition that would be held to select the design of the memorial that would be used at the eight European sites. [2] In October 1922, the submission of Toronto sculptor and designer Walter Seymour Allward was selected as the winner of the competition, and the submission of Frederick Chapman Clemesha placed second. The commission selected Vimy Ridge in France as the preferred site for Allward's design as it offered the most dramatic location. [3] Clemesha's 'Brooding Soldier' design was selected for the remaining sites but was later, for a number of reasons, erected only at St. Julien in Belgium. The remaining six sites at Passchendaele and Hill 62 in Belgium and Le Quesnel, Dury, Courcelette and Bourlon Wood in France each received a Canadian granite block memorial marker inscribed with a brief description of the battle they commemorate in both English and French. The blocks are situated in small parks that vary in shape and design and are typically situated on key points of the battlefield they memorialize.

Location & Design

Le Quesnel Memorial, with Le Quesnel village in the distance Le quesnel canadian memorial.JPG
Le Quesnel Memorial, with Le Quesnel village in the distance

The site at Le Quesnel Memorial was selected because it marks the location of the deepest penetration the Canadians (and indeed any of the Allied armies) achieved on the first day of the Battle of Amiens, over 8 miles or 13 kilometres into German-held territory from their starting point. The Memorial is composed of a small keyhole shaped park situated beside the D934 highway between Amiens and Roye on the southwest fringe of Le Quesnel village. Fittingly, maple trees and a hedge of holly line the edges of the park and well kept lawns and stone pathways surround the low circular flagstone terrace that the granite memorial block rests on. [4]

Notes

  1. Busch, Briton Cooper (2003). Canada and the Great War: Western Front Association Papers . Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press. ISBN   0-7735-2570-X. 205
  2. "Design Competition". Veteran Affairs Canada. 25 March 2007. Archived from the original on 6 December 2012. Retrieved 12 January 2008.
  3. Vance, Jonathan Franklin (1997). Death So Noble: Memory, Meaning, and the First World War. Vancouver: UBC Press. ISBN   0-7748-0600-1. 66–69
  4. Jacqueline Hucker (2012). "Monuments of the First and Second World Wars". The Canadian Encyclopedia. Historica Foundation. Retrieved 26 July 2012.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vimy</span> Commune in Hauts-de-France, France

Vimy is a commune in the Pas-de-Calais department in the Hauts-de-France region of France. Located 3.8 kilometers (2.4 mi) east of Vimy is the Canadian National Vimy Memorial dedicated to the Battle of Vimy Ridge and the Canadian soldiers who were killed during the First World War. The Memorial is also the site of two Canadian cemeteries.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Queen's Park (Toronto)</span> Toronto park home to the Ontario Legislature

Queen's Park is an urban park in Downtown Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Opened in 1860 by Edward, Prince of Wales, it was named in honour of Queen Victoria. The park is the site of the Ontario Legislative Building, which houses the Legislative Assembly of Ontario. The phrase "Queen's Park" is regularly used as a metonym for the Government of Ontario or the Legislative Assembly of Ontario.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Walter Seymour Allward</span> Canadian sculptor (1874–1955)

Walter Seymour Allward was a Canadian monumental sculptor best known for the Canadian National Vimy Memorial. Featuring expressive classical figures within modern compositions, Allward's monuments evoke themes of memory, sacrifice, and redemption. He has been widely praised for his "original sense of spatial composition, his mastery of the classical form and his brilliant craftsmanship".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tomb of the Unknown Soldier (Canada)</span> Monument dedicated to Canadian soldiers that contains the remains of an unidentified soldier.

The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier is a tomb situated before the National War Memorial in Confederation Square, Ottawa, Ontario. The tomb is dedicated to Canadian service members, and holds the remains of an unidentified Canadian soldier who died in France during the First World War; selected from a Commonwealth War Grave near Vimy, in the vicinity where the Battle of Vimy Ridge took place.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Canadian National Vimy Memorial</span> Memorial in Pas-de-Calais, in France

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ox Hill Battlefield Park</span>

Ox Hill Battlefield Park is a site in Fairfax, Virginia, where the Battle of Ox Hill was fought during the American Civil War. It was the only major battle of the war fought in Fairfax County. The battlefield is now a public park adjacent to suburban developments and the Fairfax Towne Center shopping center, and is maintained by the Fairfax County Park Authority.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Saint Julien Memorial</span>

The St. Julien Memorial, also known as The Brooding Soldier, 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. The memorial was designed by World War I veteran and architect, Lieutenant Frederick Chapman Clemesha, and was selected following a design competition organized by the Canadian Battlefields Memorials Commission in 1920.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dury Memorial</span>

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, Pas-de-Calais, France.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Courcelette Memorial</span>

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bourlon Wood Memorial</span> Canadian war memorial

The Bourlon Wood Memorial, near Bourlon, France, 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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Passchendaele Canadian Memorial</span>

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hill 62 Memorial</span> Canadian war memorial

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Le Quesnel</span> Commune in Hauts-de-France, France

Le Quesnel is a commune in the Somme department in Hauts-de-France in northern France.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Beaumont-Hamel Newfoundland Memorial</span> World War I memorial site in France

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bell Memorial</span> Monument in Brantford, Ontario, Canada

The Bell Memorial is a memorial designed by Walter Seymour Allward to commemorate the invention of the telephone by Alexander Graham Bell at the Bell Homestead National Historic Site, in Brantford, Ontario, Canada.

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 Monuments aux Morts of the Eastern Somme are French war memorials commemorating those who died in World War I on the eastern side of the Somme region.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Memorial tablets to the British Empire dead of the First World War</span> Memorials to fallen military people

Between 1923 and 1936, the Imperial War Graves Commission erected a series of memorial tablets in French and Belgian cathedrals to commemorate the British Empire dead of the First World War. The tablets were erected in towns in which British Army or Empire troops had been quartered.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gordon Monument</span> Memorial of the Battle of Waterloo

The Gordon Monument is a neoclassical monument to a slain warrior on the battlefield of Waterloo. The person commemorated is Lt Colonel Sir Alexander Gordon (1786–1815). It was erected in 1817 by the siblings of the deceased who included a future Prime Minister, Lord Aberdeen.