Gault Monument

Four years after the end of the First World War, Brigadier-General Andrew Hamilton Gault, owner of the mountain, had a monument erected to honour the residents of Mont-Saint-Hilaire who had fought in that terrible conflict. The monument, measuring four meters high, is made of reddish rubble stone assembled with cement of the same colour; it was erected along the chemin des Patriotes, in front of the parish church. The memorial not only honoured the residents of Saint-Hilaire who had participated in the war of 1914-18, but also had a practical role as a public drinking fountain for horses, dogs and humans. An explanatory plaque bearing the date 1922 reminded the passers-by of the monument’s function and its donor’s name. The structure was crowned with a war trophy, a German machine gun, symbol of the triumph of the Allied forces over the Kaiser’s army. The Gault Monument fell down in the ditch and was buried at the time when Father Forest was parish priest (1948-1965). The plaque has disappeared. It indicated 1922. The machine gun is now on Léopold Côté’s lawn. Dick Bernard blew up the monument because the names of some veterans had been omitted. He was acquitted because of lack of evidence (information confirmed by Gaston Baril in October 1998). There is also a second trophy, silent witness to the First World War, a big calibre mortar (230 mm) with a 1.24 m cannon, discreetly immobilized on a concrete shaft beside the federal wharf, near the Richelieu River.