Montreal West War Monument
Municipality/Province: Montréal, QC
Memorial number: 24029-004
Type: Shaft - granite, statue - bronze
Address: 50 South Westminster Avenue
GPS coordinates: Lat: 45.4517639 Long: -73.642586
Submitted by: Michel Litalie. Alan Hustak. Town of Montreal West
Photo credit: City of Montreal West
The Montreal West War Monument was unveiled by Sir Arthur William Currie on October 21, 1921. It was erected by fellow citizens to those who lost their lives in the First World War. The bronze statue of a Canadian soldier was sculpted by George W. Hill. Later a wall was added behind the monument to honour those who lost their lives in the Second World War.
George William Hill was born in Shipton, Eastern Townships, in 1861. He learned to carve marble in his father’s company, after he graduated from college. Between 1889 and 1894, he left Quebec to study sculpting at the École nationale des beaux-arts and Académie Julian in Paris. When he returned to Montreal, he opened a studio and worked with architect Robert Findlay and brothers Edward and William S. Maxwell. Known for his public monuments and war memorials, he is considered one of the most important Canadian sculptors of the early twentieth century.
Hill designed several monuments commemorating Canadians lost in the South African War, including the Strathcona and South African Soldiers' Memorial in Quebec and Boer War Soldiers Monument in Ontario. At the end of the First World War, Hill was awarded several contracts by towns and cities wishing to pay homage to citizens who had died on the battlefields. Between 1920 and 1930 he designed these monuments: Westmount Cenotaph, Magog Cenotaph, Argenteuil Cenotaph, Richmond Cenotaph, Sherbrooke War Memorial and Montreal West War Monument in Quebec; Pictou County War Memorial in Nova Scotia; Soldier's Monument, The Soldier and Nurses’ Memorial in Ontario; and Soldier's Monument in Prince Edward Island.
Inscription found on memorial
[front/devant]
DEDICATED TO THE
MEMORY OF THE SONS
OF MONTREAL WEST,
WHO GLORIOUSLY
LAID DOWN THEIR
LIVES IN THE GREAT
WAR AND IN HONOUR
FOREVERMORE OF
ALL THOSE WHO
SERVED THEREIN.
THIS TRIBUTE IS ERECTED
WITH FULL HEARTS BY THEIR
FELLOW CITIZENS.
1914-1918
[right side/côté droit]
LIEUT. FRANK P. COLLINS
LIEUT. LAURENCE H. GASS
LIEUT. RALPH G. HALL
LIEUT. WYLIE SHARP
FLT. CDT. G. L. ROBINSON
CO. SGT MAJ. A. W. FALES
SGT. R. S. MCLAGAN M. M.
SGT. JOHN H. THOMPSON
CORP. EDGAR A. MOTT
[back/arrière]
LENS
THE SOMME
YPRES
FESTUBERT
VIMY RIDGE
HILL 70
PASSCHENDAELE
AMIENS
CAMBRAI
DROCOURT-QUEANT
MONS
[left side/côté gauche]
CORP. J.G. SCOTT
M.M., CORP. S.C. WESTGATE
PTE. W. IAN BROWN
PTE. ART. W. EATON
PTE. F.K.S. MACKAY
PTE. HUBERT B. MOTT
PTE. CHAS. E. TYLER
PTE. L.H. WESTOVER
[wall/mur]
1939 REMEMBRANCE 1945
- ALEXANDER, JAMES
- ARMSTRONG, ROBERT O.
- BALDWIN, JESSE A.
- BARK, WILFRED
- BEATTIE, HARRY C.
- BISSELL, DONALD C.
- BLOIS, KENNETH
- BRAIN, DONALD
- BRAIN, T. REGINALD
- BRYANT, ROBERT A.
- BRYDGES, H. STANLEY
- CLARKE, DONALD W.
- CLARSON, OWEN
- CONWAY, R. WARREN
- CROKE, FRANCIS B.
- CROWDY, CHARLES W. C.
- DUFF, LEWIS M.
- FISH, J. GARTH
- FREELAND, J. ROY
- FULTON, HUGH C.
- HALE, JOHN
- HERVEY, ROBERT G.
- HIGGINSON, LLOYD G.
- HORNING, F. ARTHUR
- JACOBS, DAVID S.
- JOHNSTON, JACK G.
- JOHNSTONE, THOMAS
- KIMBER, GORDON S.
- LAING, RICHARD A.
- LOUGH, O. HUBERT
- MAINGUY, PHILIP S.
- MARKS, GEORGE H.
- MODELAND, S. TERRY
- MORTON, DAVID A.
- MUIR, T. JAMES
- PATERSON, EDWARD A.
- PATRICK, JOHN H.
- PETHICK, THOMAS M.
- READ, H. CALVIN.C
- ROBERTS, JOSEPH H.C.
- RODDY, WILLIAM J.
- SCHNEBLY, CLARENCE D.
- STANSBURY, J. ROBERT
- STEVENS, C. P. RODGER
- TUDHOPE, WILLIAM
- VOKEY, RICHARD W.
- WIGGINS, F. WALKER
- WILLIAMS, PETER Y.
- WILSON, DONALD F.
- WRIGHT, GORDON W.
Street view
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