The cenotaph in Legion Memorial Park, erected in 1923 by the citizens of Cornwall and suburbs, was originally dedicated to those lost in the Great War. It was designed by Emanuel Hahn, constructed in 1923 and unveiled June 5, 1925 by Baron Byng of Vimy.
Emanuel Hahn's statue design represents the sorrows caused by war. The bronze 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.
After the Second World War, the Royal Canadian Legion debated constructing another memorial, but decided they already had a "very fine Memorial for our Comrades who fell in the First Great War". They decided instead, to build a Community Centre for this honour.
The cenotaph was later modified to include the Second World War and Korean War, as well as a plaque recognizing contributions made in peacekeeping and the Afghanistan theatre of operations. Presently it is used on November 11 for Remembrance Day ceremonies and also for the Battle of the Atlantic ceremonies.
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.
