Prince Edward Island

In July 1919, a group of Great War Veterans paraded into the town's Square for a program of speeches, music and fireworks. A year later citizens gathered for a ceremony to mark the arrival of a German gun, presented to the town for winning a provincial competition for Victory Loans and a second larger German gun, that was part of a countrywide distribution, was placed in the Square. In July 1922, a memorial to commemorate the Prince County lives lost in the Great War, known as the Soldier's Monument, was unveiled and dedicated.

The Square is valued as a reminder of the sacrifices made by Prince Edward Islanders during past conflicts. In 1938, the park was officially renamed Memorial Square in honour of those whose names were inscribed on the Soldier's Monument. The names of local men who lost their lives in the Second World War and Korean War were added to a stone plaque that rests immediately in front of the memorial. The unveiling ceremony took place on May 6, 1956.

Atop the monument, Emanuel Hahn’s bronze soldier is caught in the moment. He has just left his trench and is breaking across No Man’s Land. Wearing battle kit with a Lee-Enfield in his right hand, the soldier is in full stride, running headlong toward the enemy.

Hahn’s Summerside statue caught the eye of Lieutenant-General Arthur Currie. Currie played a key role in planning the Canadian success in the battle for Vimy Ridge and commanded the Canada Corps during its achievements in the final year and a half of the First World War.

After the war Currie assumed a new role as Principal of McGill College in Montreal. Directly across the St. Lawrence from Montreal is the community of Saint-Lambert and Currie decided to underwrite the cost of building the Saint-Lambert war memorial. Currie determined that there should be a design that reflected well and truly on the men of the Canada Corps, men for whom he felt enduring affection and esteem. He decided that the Saint-Lambert monument should feature the same statue as Summerside. The Summerside figure only appears here and at Saint-Lambert. 

The black granite plates were added in a 1988 refurbishment and the bronze sculpture was restored in 2012.

Emanuel Hahn moved to Toronto at the age of seven with his family of artists and musicians from Germany, in 1888. He studied commercial design and model-making at Toronto Technical School and Ontario College of Art and Industrial Design. At 25 years old Hahn began a nearly lifelong contract with Thomson Monument Company of Toronto. Two years later, he also started work as a studio assistant to sculptor Walter Seymour Allward. Part of his duties included assisting on Allward’s significant works such as the South African War Memorial in Toronto.

In 1912 Hahn began an association with the Thomson Monument Company of Toronto. It was there, along with several assistants, he made the many war memorials that are found across Canada: Fernie, British Columbia; Killarney and Russell, Manitoba Alvinston, Bolton, Cornwall, Hanover, Lindsay, Malvern, Milton, Petrolia and Port Dalhousie, Ontario; Gaspe, Quebec; Moncton, New Brunswick; Springhill and Westville Nova Scotia.

Hahn is probably most famous as the designer of the Bluenose on the back of the Canadian dime and the Caribou on the back of the Canadian quarter. He was a victim of anti-German sentiment in the years following the Great War, when his design for the Winnipeg Cenotaph was rejected in 1925.

This stained glass window was placed by the Woman of the Church in memory of those who died in Second World War.

This stained glass window was presented by Second World War Veterans with thanks for their safe return home from war.

Patrick Doucette was nine years old when his brothers, Melvin and Alfred, both soldiers in the Calgary Highlanders, were home on leave during the Second World War. Melvin Doucette was 16 years old in 1942 when he forged his father’s signature to join the army. He and his oldest brother, Alfred, then 22, headed into action in the Second World War.

The brothers returned to Prince Edward Island on leave a few times. Patrick remembers their big loud boots, how tall they were and how they seemed just a little out of place in the family’s Miminegash kitchen.

In July of 1944, the family received word that Alfred was seriously injured in the Battle of Normandy and was in a British field hospital. Soon after, another telegram arrived with the news that Melvin had been killed. He was 19. When Alfred heard about his brother’s death, he passed. To commemorate his sons, Edmond planted two rose bushes near their home in Miminegash. Friends and neighbours said the roses would never grow in the sandy soil, but rose after rose bloomed.

To remember his brothers' sacrifices and that of his family, Patrick, a prolific artist, painted Lone Soldier on November 5, 2020. A soldier in silhouette looks over a cross on a hilltop and poppies dot the shadowed field. The painting hung in the entry to Wedgewood Manor, the place he and his wife Jean called home for many years. In January of 2022, the painting was removed from the manor and given to a family member.

This plaque, located on the exterior west wall of the 1911 Summerside Armoury, was placed in honour of Nursing Sister Georgina Fane Pope.  Although born in Charlottetown (1862), Georgina spent her formative years in St. Eleanors and Summerside. Her parents, Helen DesBrisay and William H. Pope, were members of prominent and influential PEI families. Her military career as a nursing sister and Canada’s first nursing matron, included overseas service in South Africa, England and France, and the award of the Royal Red Cross 1^st Class. She received a military pension after 1919 and lived in Charlottetown until her death in 1938, at which time she was honored with a full military funeral.  

Georgina Pope is one of the 14 bronze busts on the Valiants Memorial in Confederation Square, Ottawa, that are viewed by thousands of people every day.

The stone archway was built by Cajétan Arsenault of Saint-Raphael and stands at the entrance of the Notre Dame du Mont Carmel church cemetery. The monument was unveiled in August 1923 by Governor General Byng of Vimy. The Governor General was addressed by Justice Aubin-Edmond Arsenault, speaking to the sacrifice of Acadians in the war:

"You are looking at a group of wretched parents mourning their beloved children who fell on the field of honour. You also have before you many young people who valiantly answered the call and rushed to the aid of the motherland. And, Your Excellency, if all the parents whose children enlisted were gathered, they would constitute half of all the families in this parish. And what was accomplished here was also the work of other Acadian communities in this province.

Your Excellency, we take the liberty to speak of these facts because we are convinced that we address a patriot and a soldier; we know that we address the Hero of Vimy who immortalized his name by his military tactics, which led to the glory of our Canadian soldiers."

The trumpeting angels and cross were added to the top in 1927. Later a centre plaque was added with the names of those killed in the Second World War.

The Lot 16 War Memorial was erected in 1922 and dedicated to two local soldiers that died during the First World War. It was organized by Mrs. Edward Millar and unveiled by John Barrett, a First World War Veteran who served overseas. Funds for the monument were donated by area residents and businesses.

After the Second World War, three more war dead names were added. 

The Tignish War Memorial was built in 1947 by Edmond Laurent Gallant and Louis Harper. Claude Kinch, Hector Buote and J. Peter Gaudet were instrumental in having it erected. The latter hauled stones from Pleasant View for its construction. The land on which the memorial is built was donated by the Sisters of Notre Dame.

The memorial is a stone archway with a statue inside and small steps leading to it. There are black granite plaques on the sides displaying the names of Veterans who died in the First and Second World Wars. Later a plaque was added to honour all Veterans of the Korean War.

Erected by the local church and area residents, this memorial is dedicated to the local veterans of the First World War.

Memorial Square, named in 1938 for its primary feature, the Prince County Soldiers’ Monument, is the oldest public park in the City of Summerside. The park's military connection dates back to 1866 when the Colonial Government purchased the land and erected a Drill Shed to house the local militia. The field adjoining the building became known as the Drill Shed Square until 1889 when the townspeople were given permission by the Canadian Government (PEI having joined Canada in 1873) to use the land as a Public Garden. The Drill Shed was destroyed in the Great Fire of 1906. In 1908, the Town of Summerside bought the property and three years later named it Dominion Square.

In 1920, two captured German field guns were placed in the square. These reminders of war set the tone for the erection in 1922 of a large memorial to commemorate Prince County men who lost their lives in the Great War. A granite stone was placed in front of the original monument in 1956 to record the names of those who died in the Second World War and the Korean War. In 2000, the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan Memorial was erected in the square.

A rejuvenation of the park was carried out between 2002 and 2004, with an emphasis on improving the area around the Soldiers’ Monument. Memorial Square is valued as a reminder of the sacrifices made by Islanders during past conflicts. For more information on Memorial Square visit Canada's Historic Places.