Newfoundland & Labrador

The Placentia Bay Veterans Cenotaph was unveiled August 8, 2016, during a special ceremony as a conclusion to the Voices of Placentia Bay Festival. The cenotaph is in an garden once used by Presentation nuns as a place of prayer and meditation. The cenotaph is a tribute to those from all the current and former communities of Placentia Bay who served in the First World War, Second World War, Korean War and peacekeeping missions. 

The dedication was organized by the Festival of Flags, a community service organization, in partnership with the Town of Placentia and the Doctor William Collingwood Memorial Branch 33 of the Royal Canadian Legion, Placentia. The cenotaph was designed by Tract Consulting, erected by Collins Contracting Ltd. and funded by the Department of Veterans Affairs and a community contribution. It is the result of a research project jointly started in 2008 by the Placentia Royal Canadian Legion and the Festival of Flags and assisted by The Rooms, Memorial University and the Department of Veterans Affairs. 

As soon as the First World War ended, discussions began on how to honour Newfoundland and Labrador's war dead and it was felt that a national war memorial was needed. The Patriotic Association and the Great War Veterans' Association worked together to find a way to "give expression to its gratitude and respect for those who during the Great War served King and Empire". In 1920, these associations jointly recommended the building of both a national war monument and a school as memorials.

Memorial University College was established in 1925 as a living memorial to those who had lost their lives on active service during the First World War. It was located on Parade Street until it moved to the new campus on Elizabeth Avenue in 1961. The vision was that the memory of those who fought and died in the First World War would be honoured through education, by making the world a better place. The College became Memorial University of Newfoundland in 1949.

In light of the great loss suffered during the previous war, Newfoundland did not impose a draft during the Second World War. However many Newfoundlanders still volunteered. Of those recruits, 310 former students of the Memorial University College offered themselves for active service. Regrettably, 30 of these students lost their lives.

Memorial University was later rededicated to include the war dead of the Second World War. A plaque was unveiled by Her Royal Highness the Princess Royal, Colonel-in-Chief of the Royal Newfoundland Regiment on 21 September 1964 on the 50th anniversary of the formation of the regiment. The plaque was erected by the Newfoundland Command of the Royal Canadian Legion.

This memorial is located between the Ferryland Town Hall and Royal Canadian Legion Branch #34. It is a stone cairn, with a brass dedication plaque and steel cross. The memorial is dedicated to the honour of those men and women of the southern shore.

This memorial is dedicated to all War Veterans in St. Mary's Bay. It was erected by the Royal Canadian Legion, Branch 62.

The Fighting Newfoundlander was unveiled on September 13, 1922. The statue depicts a life-like scene of a soldier during battle, with one hand holding a rifle and the other cocked and ready to throw a grenade. The statue is a meticulous and detailed piece of work conceived and created by Captain Basil Gotto, a famous sculptor who was commissioned during the war to create a piece of a ‘fighting soldier’.

The statue was posed for by Corporal Thomas Pittman of Fortune Bay, Newfoundland. In 1918, while stationed in Hazley Down Camp, England, Corporal Pittman was asked to pose for Captain Gotto in full military combat gear. He would pose for an hour each day for roughly two months until Gotto was finished. The statue was completed in early 1919 and donated to the Park in September 1922, by Sir Edgar Bowring, expressing both his commitment to the park as well as his love and affection to the citizens of Newfoundland who had suffered tremendous losses during the war. The statue was refurbished in 2007 by local sculptor Luben Boykov.

A second of Gotto's statues, The Caribou Monument, was installed in the park on July 1, 1928.

This memorial commemorates the commissioning of the HMCS St. John's, June 24, 1996. Also it is dedicated to the Newfoundlanders who fought at sea, and to those who still maintain the peace.

The Caribou Monument, a gift from Major Howe Green, was unveiled on 1 July 1928 by His Worship the Mayor, Honourable Tasker Cook, in the presence of a large crowd. The ceremony was organized by the Bowring Park Committee.

Major Green served in the First World War with the Royal Newfoundland Regiment. The caribou is not a memorial to their glorious dead, as the monument on King's Beach in St. John’s pays tribute to those who died. The Caribou Monument is an everlasting tribute to the regiment’s esprit de corps and loyal comradeship when its members so gallantly and honorably wore the regimental badge. It is also an expression of the hope of that spirit of comradeship then formed shall remain unto the last.

The caribou (the emblem of the Royal Newfoundland Regiment) is a replica of the original erected at Beaumont-Hamel Newfoundland Memorial and is situated on a ledge. The statue is estimated to weigh approximately 1,700 pounds. It is surrounded by trees, with a brook to the left. The site was selected by landscape architect RBK Cochius, who supervised the monument's installation, and is almost identical to the one at Beaumont-Hamel. The caribou statue was created by Captain Basil Gotto, a famous sculptor who was commissioned during the war to create a piece of a ‘fighting soldier’.

Thomas Nangle, the Regimental Padre, recommended memorials to mark each of the Regiment's main battles: Gallipoli, Beaumont-Hamel, Gueudecourt, Monchy-le-Preux, Masnières and Courtrai. Six caribous stand watch over the battlefields in Europe where so many of the Royal Newfoundland Regiment fell. This was the sixth caribou, first in Canada, installed and stands watch with its defiant gaze forever fixed towards its former foe.

Directly across from The Caribou Monument are the Beaumont Hamel Memorial Plaque Replicas.

The World War II Gunners Memorial, located in Bowring Park, was erected in memory of all gunners in the Second World War.

This memorial is dedicated to those from the Community of Petty Harbour/Maddox Cove who served in all Wars. It was erected by the War Memorial Committee.

Erected by Royal Canadian Legion Branch No. 33, this memorial is dedicated to the local war dead and veterans of the First and Second World Wars. It is made of grey granite, standing some 10 feet tall, 3 feet wide and 12 inches thick.