The Gaspe Cenotaph was erected by the Royal Canadian Legion in 1921 and dedicated to the local war dead and Veterans of the First World War. Later names were added for those who fell in the Second World War.
On July 7, 1921, more than 5,000 people witnessed the unveiling of the Gaspe War Memorial by Major-General Sir David Watson. The celebrations opened with Church Services which were followed by a march past of the officials accompanied by a Guard of Honour and the R.C.G.A. Band from Quebec. Major-General Sir David Watson reviewed the Guard who presented a fine soldierly appearance and were cheered by the assembled people. An address of welcome was delivered by Mayor A.D. Valpy which was followed by an address by Mrs. Calhoun, President of the Ladies War Memorial Committee of six ladies who carried out the full organization and all the details of the function. In her speech, Mrs. Calhoun said: “We have had our difficulties and discouragements, as was inevitable, but the loyalty of the members of the Committee together with the generous support accorded to us by the public has made it possible for us to overcome these and bring our work to a successful conclusion.” Eloquent speeches were also delivered by the Hon. Frank Carrell, M.L.C., M. Auguste Sirois, M. Pinault, Mr. J. Leonard Apedaile, Rev. Canon Wayman and others.
Hahn's design represents the sorrows caused by war. The soldier atop the cenotaph looks down in sadness at the ground below him, as if he might find there, his fallen comrades, if not for the tragedy of war.
The statue depicts a young, grieving Canadian soldier in First World War army uniform. With uncovered head, he is standing at a battlefield grave – a simple cross with poppies at the base – the final resting place of a comrade killed in action. His left hand rests on the cross, while his right hand holds a reversed rifle.
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; Summerside, Prince Edward Island.
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.
