British Columbia

These plaques are dedicated to those who gave their lives in the First and Second World Wars. The round plaque was unveiled in 1965.

This memorial is dedicated to those who fought in the First World War.

The Royal Navy and Police Memorial was erected on September 12, 1993, by the Royal Canadian Naval Association. It honours fifty-five Royal Navy men and one Victoria police constable, who died between 1846 and 1868. It is erected in the Old Burying Ground (Pioneer Square). The southwest corner (corner of Quadra St. and Rockland Ave.) became known as the ‘Naval Corner’ as it was there, for the most part, that the remains of the deceased sailors were interred and/or memorialized. The Old Burying Ground (Pioneer Square) opened in 1855.

Following the battle of Vimy Ridge, this memorial cross was erected to honour the men of the 16^th Battalion (Canadian Scottish) Canadian Expeditionary Force, who fell on April 9, 1917. Years later, it was transferred to the Trustees of the 16^th Battalion Association from the Imperial War Grave Commission in France and was officially unveiled on October 23, 1938 in Pioneer Square, Victoria, British Columbia, to commemorate all 1,346 soldiers of the battalion who fell in France and Flanders.

The cross was subsequently relocated to the Bay Street Armoury, where it remains to this day, when it was replaced in the square by a stone cenotaph in 1951.

The Oak Bay Cenotaph was constructed in 1948 on behalf of 97 young men and one woman from Oak Bay, who died in WWII. On Armistice Day, November 11th, 1948, the Cenotaph was unveiled by the Lieutenant Governor, the Honourable Charles H. Banks, C.M.G., and dedicated by the Venerable Archdeacon A deL. Nunns and the Reverend Dr. W.W. McPherson. A wall of concrete with granite finish frames a nine-foot tall statue of a woman, her eyes downcast upon the 97 names of Oak Bay's war dead. The inscription reads: "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." Early in 1948, the Oak Bay Town Council decided that a suitable memorial be erected. A young former airman from Ontario, James Saull, had made his home in Victoria after the war. He had been a pupil of the well-known Toronto sculptor Emmanuel Hahn (Hahn sculpted the Bluenose schooner on our dime, the caribou on the quarter and the Indians in their canoe on the silver dollar), and the young man's talent had become known locally. It took Saull about seven months to complete the nine-foot monument, for which his wife was the model. The monument is located in Uplands Park on a rock out-cropping, facing Beach Drive. Since the concrete monument had been built on a rock out-cropping, there wasn't any problem with settlement but, over three and a half decade, it had been exposed to the extremes of weather. It was then that Mr. Saull was called upon by the Town Council to rebuild and repair the entire structure.

The work completed in time for the 2019 Remembrance Day service, which includes refurbishing the path and steps up to the cenotaph and also the stair railing, is the latest phase of work that was laid out in the 2016 strategic plan headed by Coun. Tara Ney and a small task force.

The Canadian Scottish Regiment Cenotaph was erected in memory of all ranks of The Canadian Scottish Regiment (Princess Mary's) who gave their lives in the First and Second World Wars. Originally, the cenotaph was a wooden cross that had been erected at Vimy Ridge during the First World War. It was brought back to Victoria by the 16th Battalion, Canadian Expeditionary Force and installed in 1938, after plans for a fountain failed.

In 1951, it was replaced by the current stone cross mounted on a rectangular base that is mounted on a hexagonal base that is mounted on three hexagonal steps - all made of granite. The Canadian Scottish Regiment Vimy Ridge Cross was placed in the Bay Street Armoury.

Erected by the city of Victoria, this memorial is dedicated to Sir James Douglas, Governor and Commander-in-Chief of British Columbia from 1851 to 1864.

This plaque is dedicated to the those who gave their lives in the First World War from the 88th Regiment Victoria Fusiliers.

This memorial was dedicated to the memory of the fallen of the First World War and unveiled on 12 July 1925, by Lieutenant-Governor W.C. Nichol. An estimated 3,000 people gathered to witness the unveiling. Among the dignitaries who attended were Victoria Cross recipient Colonel Cy Peck and lawyer Lindley Crease, who had been the chairman of the war memorial committee.

The Victoria War Memorial was built by public subscription from fundraising that started in September 1924. Frederick Bernard Pemberton played a key role in organizing the committee, coming up with a design for the memorial and seeing it built. He enlisted his friend, Lindley Crease, to lead the fundraising drive. The bronze statue was created by sculptors Vernon and Sydney March. 

Later inscriptions were added for the Second World War, Korean War and Afghanistan.

On Feb 12, 2020, Minister MacAulay visited the cenotaph at the George Derby Centre —a long-term care facility in Burnaby, British Columbia specializing in veteran's care. The original George Derby Centre was built over 50 years ago as a rehabilitation centre for young disabled veterans returning from the war with the goal of promoting their return to community living. In May 1988 the present centre opened as a 300 bed licensed intermediate care facility.

The Centre is named in honour of the late Sergeant George Cleveland Derby O.B.E. In 1914, Mr. Derby was employed in Vancouver as a Broker. On September 18, 1915, at the outbreak of World War I, he enlisted as a private in the 72^nd Battalion, Seaforth Highlanders, Canadian Expeditionary Force. He was stationed in England from April to August 1916 and was then sent to France. In November 1916 he suffered a concussion that seriously impaired his hearing. In April 1917, during the preliminary fighting at Vimy, an exploding shell buried him in a trench and left him with a permanently disabled knee. He was invalided to England in May 1917 and returned to Canada that November. As his injuries were permanent, he received his army discharge in January 1918 and left his unit with the rank of Sergeant. In September 1918, George Derby joined the Department of Solders’ Civil Re-establishment, the forerunner of the Department of Veterans Affairs. During World War II, he was District Administrator for the Department in Vancouver. He headed a committee responsible for drafting the Veterans’ Charter, which set forth the provisions for members of the Armed Services returning to Canada and planning to re-enter civilian life. His work on this committee took him to wartime England where he was awarded the Order of the British Empire in 1943 for patriotic and philanthropic work. When George Derby returned to Canada, he became Western Regional Administrator in Vancouver for the newly formed Department of Veterans Affairs. In 1946, he negotiated the land acquisition for a new veterans’ hospital, and in that year, the George Derby Centre was named in his honour. He remained with Veterans Affairs Canada in Vancouver until his retirement in 1956. He died in Shaughnessy Hospital at the age of 81 on January 5, 1971.

The cenotaph, which received Community War Memorial funding through the Commemorative Partnership Program, serves to honour Veterans and commemorate those who died in service to our country. Imperial War Graves Commission member Rudyard Kipling recommended the inscription "Lest we forget" which has widely be inscribed on war memorials since the First World War. The phrase "Lest we forget" which forms the refrain of "Recessional" by Rudyard Kipling, is taken from Deuteronomy 6:12: "Then beware lest thou forget the Lord which brought thee forth out of the land of Egypt".