In the late 1920s, the New Glasgow Gyro Club, some of whose members were war Veterans, gained public support to provide the town with a war memorial. John E. Clarke, member of the Gyro Club, wrote every city and town in Canada with a memorial to find out why they chose a memorial over a library or building and vice versa. No detail was too much trouble for him. With co-operation of the Royal Canadian Legion and the town council, the club organized a financial drive. They raised $12,000 going door to door soliciting funds.
A citizens' committee assisted in selecting and erecting the memorial and chose the figure submitted by J. Massey Rhind, a Scottish-American sculptor. He began his studies under his father then attended the prestigious Royal Scottish Academy as a 15-year old prodigy and continued his studies with Jules Dalou in Lambeth, England. He continued his studies in England, then two more years in Paris and moved to New York in 1889 when he was 29. After the First World War, Rhind lived in Chester, Nova Scotia. His work in Nova Scotia includes the Halifax Grand Parade Cenotaph, Chester Cenotaph and Cornwallis Statue.
J. Massey Rhind designed the Highland bagpiper. Rhind fashioned the piper in the garb of all pipers in the British Empire military during the First World War. He supervised the casting in a Scottish foundry and the careful packing involved in freighting it across the ocean. It was erected on a granite base shaft listing the names of those who died in the First World War.
All branches of military service had in common a burial ceremony for the dead. When permitted, the dead were interred to the notes of the buglers' or trumpeters' Last Post, and the belief of Resurrection symbolized by sounding the Reveille. Then followed the keening of the pipes, the Lament, a mournful cadence in farewell to a comrade in arms. In Carmichael Park, the piper in bronze perpetually pipes a Lament for the Fallen.
The New Glasgow War Memorial was unveiled on September 25, 1929, in memory of those who lost their lives during the First World War. The actual unveiling was performed by Mrs. Frances Maclntosh Sprossen, a sister of four Maclntosh brothers who had served overseas, three of whom paid the supreme sacrifice.
This beautiful monument has been seen and admired by many thousands of people over the years, and it is the most photographed subject in the area during tourist season. Immigrants from Scotland settled this part of Nova Scotia in 1773, whose largest town is named after the great city of Glasgow. This is where each year, during the Festival of Tartans Celebrations, the sounds of the pipes can be heard among the hills. Therefore, it is fitting that such a monument should be here, reminding us not only of our great heritage, but also, of the many brave who sacrificed their lives for the good of mankind during the First World War.
The name of the bronze piper's Scottish sculptor lives on in Pictou County, born Massey Cotter of Westville, himself a Veteran of the Korean War. Gyro Club member J. Geddie Cotter named his son after sculptor Massey Rhind.
