26 July 1936

The Vimy Memorial and Pilgrimage

“Returning to France … gives us the feeling that we are treading on sacred ground, as we think of the countless thousands who lie sleeping here …We can never forget those heroic lives and the endless stories of bravery which make up the saga of the war. Acts of heroism were almost the everyday of life.”

CREATING A MEMORIAL

The First World War had been an entirely new kind of war, and that called for a new kind of commemoration. The Canadian Battlefields Memorial Commission (established in 1920) was granted eight sites across France and Belgium by the Imperial War Graves Commission where memorials would be erected to the memory of Canadians who had served and sacrificed. Hill 145, the highest point atop Vimy Ridge, was chosen as the site of Canada’s national memorial overseas; this would be the largest of the monuments dedicated to the Canadian war effort.

In 1922, the French Government granted Canada about 250 acres of land on Hill 145 as “the free gift in perpetuity of the French nation to the people of Canada.” Planning could now begin. Toronto’s Walter Allward won the competition to design the monument from among 160 entrants. His plan was grandiose and his design inspiring and bold. He envisioned a massive base sprouting two towering white limestone pylons rising dramatically over the surrounding countryside; evocative beacons, one symbolizing Canada and one France, united in memory and bereavement. The fortress-like base represents the walls of defence, overlooked by a solitary double life-size statue of a veiled, downcast woman that Allward called Canada Bereft. The allegorical sculptures embedded at the base or along the pylons represent Sacrifice, Peace, Justice, Truth, and other virtuous qualities encouraging hope for a better post-war world. The monument was as much about the future as the past.

Work began on the Vimy Memorial in 1925. It required 11,000 tons of concrete and masonry in addition to the 6,000 tons of special quarried limestone from Croatia for constructing the magnificent pylons and carving the sculptures. It took eleven years to build the monument at a cost of more than $1.5 million – a significant sum in Depression-ravaged Canada. As a national-scale memorial, the monument is a tribute to all Canadians who served, but in particular to the more than 60,000 who never returned. At the base of the memorial is inscribed the following: “To the valour of their countrymen in the Great War and in memory of their sixty thousand dead this monument is raised by the people of Canada.” The names of 11,285 Canadians known to have died in France but with no known grave are engraved along the base of the memorial.

Typed document. — In Defence of Vimy

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The question of what site to use for Allward's impressive plan generated considerable debate, with Hill 60 being the preferred location at one point. The Report of the Canadian Battlefields Commission included testimony from General Currie, which had considerable impact on the decision. Excerpts from Currie's testimony are transcribed below.
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The painting is dark, the focal point through light and positioning is the bright, white Vimy monument pillars at the top of the hill. Below, ghostly images of soldiers roam the land surrounding the monument. — Ghosts of Vimy

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Sir Walter Allward's inspiration for the Vimy Memorial came to him in a dream, in which, he said, dead soldiers "rose in masses, filed silently by and entered the fight to aid the living. So vivid was this impression, that when I awoke it stayed with me for months. Without the dead we were helpless. So I have tried to show this in this monument to Canada's fallen, what we owed them and we will forever owe them." Captain William Longstaff's "Vimy Ridge" artwork (circa 1930-1939) combines Allward's inspiration with the resulting striking monument.
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A CANADIAN PILGRIMAGE

The Canadian Legion, with co-operation from the Canadian, French, and British Governments, organized a formal pilgrimage to the official unveiling of the monument consisting of Canadian veterans, some family members, and official parties from the Legion and the Canadian Government and military. On 16 July 1936, following an enthusiastic and emotive dockside send-off, five passenger liners left Montreal under the ceremonial escort of a destroyer of the Royal Canadian Navy, HMCS Saguenay. Aboard were some 6,200 Canadian pilgrims from all over Canada and some from the United States, wearing distinguishing Vimy berets, medals, and pins. On 25 July the vessels docked in Le Havre and Antwerp and the Canadians reverentially made their way towards Vimy. Another 1,300 pilgrims joined them from Britain.

The memorial was inaugurated on Sunday, 26 July 1936, in a massive ceremony featuring the presence of King Edward VIII. While Prince of Wales, the King had served on the staff of the Canadian Corps and had toured Canada in 1919 and 1927. He enthusiastically greeted numerous Canadian pilgrims whom he knew personally. His presence lent aura to the event and validated the memorial and the site as one of great importance to Canada. Estimates vary but no fewer than 50,000 people were present, most of them French citizens expressing their gratitude. Amongst the Canadian dignitaries were Justice Minister Ernest Lapointe and the Minister of Pensions and National Health, Charles G. Power, himself a decorated veteran. Also in attendance was Sir Robert Borden, the wartime prime minister and French President Albert Le Brun.

Most of the speeches, including those of the King, the French president, and the Canadian ministers and religious officials, expressed the need for peace and reconciliation, a call made especially urgent against the backdrop of mounting European tensions. Allward himself noted that the magnificent monument “gives something beautiful to France, is worthy of the men who gave their lives for it, and, as a protest in a quiet way against the futility of war, makes men regret that humanity has to go to war.”

Black and white photograph. Aerial view of the monument and crowd surrounding it. The iconic Mother Canada sculpture is covered by dark cloth. — Crowds at the Unveiling

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Black and white photograph with green border. An elderly woman wears a beret and salutes the camera with her right hand. She wears a long fur-trimmed, black coat, adorned with full-size and miniature medals. — Mrs. C.S. Woods

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Black and white photograph. King Edward III, back to the camera, wearing a tuxedo, uses ropes to unveil the Mother Canada figure, covered in the Union Jack and Red Ensign. A large crowd looks on. — Unveiling

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COMMEMORATING AT HOME

Throughout the 1920s and 1930s individual communities built their own cenotaphs and memorials. These monuments became an important focus of grief for families that did not have graves to mourn. Many cenotaphs were inscribed with the names of local men who had died. They were the backdrop of Remembrance Day ceremonies, and many families treated them as their soldier's grave, laying flowers, and making sure they were well maintained.