In 1923, a citizens' committee presented a request for the erection of a monument to honor the memory of Sherbrooke residents who fought during the First World War. The memorial was dedicated on November 7, 1926, by the mayor of Sherbrooke, James Keith Edwards in front of a crowd of more than 6,000 people.
The memorial was designed and sculpted by artist George William Hill. Born in the Eastern Townships, Shipton (now Danville), Hill studied sculpture in Paris from 1889 to 1894. When he returned to Quebec he worked mainly in Montreal and after the First World War he created many military memorials in Quebec. The Sherbrooke memorial is the most elaborate of his war memorials. His name is inscribed at the base of the statues on the memorial.
The three figures at the front represent Canadian soldiers in the trenches of the First World War. One faces the monument with one arm raised, the other two have theirs backs to the monument. All three are dressed in uniform, their right hands holding a rifle, and gaze towards the statue at the top of the memorial. The female figure is the Angel of Victory, her wings outstretched and she holds a laurel wreath, the symbol of victory, in her right hand. The bronze statues were cast in Belgium and the granite used for the base came from Stanstead quarries in Quebec.
A plaque on the back lists the names of 249 Sherbrooke soldiers who died in the First World War. In 1948, a plaque was added in memory of those who died in the Second World War.
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.
