Alberta

The plaque is an Honour Roll of Korean Special Forces.

When the church opened in 1911, it was as the Wesley Methodist Church. In 1925, with the uniting of Methodist, Congregational, and Presbyterian churches in Canada it became known as the Wesley United Church.

The church at 1315 7 Street SW closed in 2003 and it is not known what happened to the Wesley United Church Second World War Honour Roll.

Veterans groups were formed to provide support for returning servicemen during the First World War. In 1916, a small community of soldiers returned to Calgary after fighting in Europe and banded together to form a mutual aid society. A year later, this group formed the Calgary branch of the Great War Veterans' Association of Canada, an organization dedicated to helping returning servicemen to reintegrate into civilian life. By 1919, the organization had grown dramatically and new facilities were required. That same year, the Prince of Wales broke sod on land provided by the city for the construction of a Memorial Hall honouring the heroic contributions of Canada's servicemen during the First World War. The building opened in 1922 and was dedicated to the memory of those who served in the Great War. In 1926, the Calgary branch of the Great War Veterans' Association of Canada joined the Canadian Legion of the British Empire Service League (later the Royal Canadian Legion).

This memorial, erected by Royal Canadian Legion Branch No. 275 (Forest Lawn) in 1978, is dedicated to the local war dead and veterans of the First and Second World Wars and the Korean War.

This plaque was originally erected by the Calgary Fire Brigade in honour of their members who died during the First World War.

This memorial is dedicated to Canada's war dead from the First and Second World Wars and the Korean War. Behind the slab stand three flagpoles.

Noel Holland Barlow was born in Denbeigh, Wales in December of 1912. His father was killed in the First World War and his mother remarried after the war. The family emigrated to Canada, and in 1932 owned and operated a farm near the small town of Carseland, southeast of Calgary. Barlow worked in the mining industry to pay for flying training at the Calgary Flying Club, where he earned his Canadian Private Pilot Certificate in 1937 and then at the end of the year, his Limited Commercial Pilot’s Certificate.

He saved for a one-way ocean liner ticket to England, but was devastated to learn at the Royal Air Force recruitment office in Great Britain that, at the age of 26, he was considered too old for military pilot training despite already having a license. He had no choice but to join as ground crew.

Shortly after the start of the Second World War, he was accepted on the newly formed 242 Canadian Squadron. During the Battle of France, he was part of the ground crew team that went to support the 242 Squadron pilots operating from the area south of the Seine River. Barlow was eventually evacuated to England to rejoin the squadron under the new leadership of then acting Squadron Leader Douglas Bader, the charismatic, capable and legless fighter pilot. Bader chose Noel Barlow as his personal fitter. Throughout the Battle of Britain, Barlow worked tirelessly to keep the squadron operational and to service Bader’s machine. A strong and lifelong bond was built between the two, based on mutual respect, the highest levels of performance and their shared experience. After the Battle of Britain, Bader and Barlow remained connected as 242 Squadron flew operations across the English Channel.

Shortly after Barlow had joined the Royal Air Force, the age limit for pilot trainees had been increased, but he stayed with 242 as a fitter until Bader’s departure to lead the new wing. After 18 months, despite a promised promotion to sergeant, Barlow requested a transfer to pilot training, something that was supported in by Bader himself. He soon found himself a lowly Leading Aircraftman crossing the Atlantic Ocean, bound for the all-through No. 3 British Flying Training School in Miami, Oklahoma. While Barlow was in Oklahoma, Bader was shot down on August 9, 1941, and taken prisoner.

Barlow did not receive his wings because of a dare and too much to drink, but he was not one to quit. He enlisted in the Royal Canadian Air Force back home in Alberta, was accepted for pilot training, and finished his Service Flying Training at No. 15 Claresholm, Alberta. Following his Wings Parade, Barlow was assigned to No. 5 Operational Training Unit at Boundary Bay in British Columbia.

Barlow remained close friends with Douglas Bader, and on Bader’s frequent trips to Calgary, he and his wife always stayed with Barlow and his wife Jeanne in the small farming town of Carseland. The story goes that when Bader was visiting Calgary on one occasion, the city leaders wanted to name a street in his honour, but Bader declined, suggesting that such an honour go to his Alberta-born fitter, a simple and unknown man named Noel Holland Barlow.

William “Willie” McKnight was born in Edmonton, Alberta in 1918 and soon moved with his family to Calgary. In 1938, he joined the Royal Air Force and headed to England. In mid-April of 1939, McKnight received a short service commission as an acting Pilot Officer and earned his Royal Air Force pilot’s brevet at No. 6 Service Flying Training School. While he appeared shy and reticent, he was a fierce warrior and a leader.

McKnight was posted to 242 Squadron in November 1939. The squadron was chosen to become the Canadian unit, manned entirely by Canadians. In May 1940, 242 Squadron sent a small detachment of pilots, including McKnight, to fly with other British Expeditionary Force squadrons. Within days of his arrival in France, young McKnight scored the first of his 17 confirmed victories over Luftwaffe pilots on May 19.

During the days of the Dunkirk withdrawal, McKnight claimed six more enemy aircraft and by June 7, had become a double ace with 10 victories. His prowess in the air and his courage in the face of the enemy had already brought him notice, and in early June he was awarded his first Distinguished Flying Cross.

The last of 242 Squadron’s pilots flew back to England on June 18. The never-ending sorties and the exhausting pace had taken its toll on the young Calgarian and he was hospitalized in early July for exhaustion, weight loss and stress-related illnesses. The new squadron commander, Douglas Bader, recognized talent and regularly flew with McKnight as his wingman. With McKnight protecting his flank, Bader’s score increased as well. Throughout the next three months McKnight rapidly accumulated victories, becoming a triple ace by the end of the Battle of Britain.

In October, McKnight was awarded his second Distinguished Flying Cross or “bar” and promoted to Flying Officer. On January 12, 1941, McKnight and M.K. Brown had just made attacks on a German “E” boat and troop concentrations just inland from Gravelines, Holland, when a Messerschmitt Bf-109 was spotted by Brown. After making a hard turn to the right, he looked again for the 109 and McKnight, but neither could be seen.

In October of 1969, a roadway leading to the Calgary Airport became McKnight Boulevard. The namesake of McKnight Boulevard, a young Calgarian by the name of William Lidstone McKnight, battled for the fate of Europe in the skies over England and France. He often flew with his squadron commander, a legendary fighter pilot by the name of Douglas Bader, a man who had no legs.

Each and every night, these two fighter pilots rested, caroused, attempted to sleep and readied for the next day’s inevitable pitched battles, while the ground crews of No. 242 Canadian Squadron laboured through the days and nights to refuel, repair and rearm their Hawker Hurricanes. Bader’s loyal, diligent and talented engine fitter was another Albertan by the name of Noel Barlow. McKnight and Barlow—one died, one lived, and Bader, an Englishman, had a lot to do with their names being associated with two intersecting thoroughfares in the booming oil town of Calgary.

Later, Bader unveiled a commemorative plaque to McKnight in the passenger hall of the Calgary Airport.

The quick firing 12-pounder was a three-inch (76.2 mm caliber) naval gun introduced in 1894 and commonly used until the middle of the 20th century. It was employed on several warships in the Royal Navy and the Royal Canadian Navy throughout the Second World War (1939 to 1945). 

This 12-pounder naval gun was produced in Ogden Shops by the Canadian Pacific (CP) munitions department and is on loan to CP by the Naval Museum of Alberta. Originally acquired from the Maritime Command Museum in Halifax, Nova Scotia, CP transported it back to the Ogden Shops in Calgary on July 2, 1993. It was restored in preparation for display at The Military Museums before transport to its current location in 2022.

Ten warships were named after Alberta cities and towns during the Second World War, including four minesweepers armed with Ogden Shops 12-pounders. This gun may have been aboard one of them.

At the commencement of the Second World War, Canadian Pacific (CP) President Edward Beatty placed the company’s full resources at the disposal of Canada and the British Empire in support of the war effort. He instructed the employees of CP: “On our readiness to meet the challenge, and, each of us, to do our duty, there hangs the fate of a nation – the destiny of future generations.”

That readiness saw two locomotive shops refitted to produce armaments. The Angus Shops in Montreal would build 1,420 Valentine tanks and other equipment to support the war effort. The Ogden Shops in Calgary were refitted at the beginning of 1941. The first gun was completed that November and shipped to the Halifax dockyards. By the end of the war, the Ogden Shops had produced over 3,000 guns and 1,650 gun mounts for use by the Royal Navy, the Royal Canadian Navy and the United States Army. With the conclusion of the Second World War in August 1945, Ogden Shops returned to maintaining locomotives. The naval gun production by Canadian Pacific remains one of the most significant Calgarian contributions to the Canadian war effort.

Just 200 meters east of this location, the Ogden Locomotive Shops (Building 7) first opened in 1913 and remained in use for locomotive maintenance until 2011.

This Montreal Canadian Pacific Railway Great War Tablet was dedicated at the Angus Shops on April 28, 1922. It was relocated to CPKC Archives. 

To honour those who served and gave their lives during the Great War, the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) erected a series of bronze memorial tablets in over twenty select locations along their railway system and offices in Canada, United States, England and China. The tablet depicts Britannia, the national personification of Britain, as a helmeted female warrior with a lion to her right and a shield at her feet, HMS Lion (Admiral Beatty's flagship during the Battle of Jutland) with airplanes above and a tank in front, Canadian Pacific Steamship RMS Empress of Russia (used during the war as an armed merchant cruiser and transport ship), Canadian troops, and a CPR locomotive in a nod to all those who travelled by train across Canada before heading overseas. The plaque was designed by Archibald Pearce, Chief Engineer's Department, Montreal, with its model and casting by the Bromsgrove Guild at Worcester, England.

All tablets were unveiled simultaneously on the same date along with three identical Winged Victory memorials in Montreal, Winnipeg and Vancouver.