The Pictou County War Memorial was erected on July 11, 1935 to honour all of the soldiers from Pictou County who died in the Great War. It was designed by Canadian sculptor George William Hill and unveiled by Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Nova Scotia.
The symbolism of the three bronze figures - one a returned soldier to typify all his class. The female figure is Justice, who has tested his merits in the scales and has found him worthy of the laurel wreath with which she is about to crown him. The youth is a Boy Scout, too young himself for military service, who welcomes his soldier father home.
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 now 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 in Quebec; Pictou County War Memorial in Nova Scotia; Soldier's Monument, The Soldier and Nurses’ Memorial in Ontario; and the Soldier's Monument in Prince Edward Island.
