First Memorials

Long before Walter Allward created the Vimy Monument, those who served their country in uniform understood that battlefield memorials should not glorify war. Instead, they should convey a great sense of loss, and honour the dead who sacrificed their lives for the living. Long before the fighting ended, ceremonies like this one were commonplace at Vimy Ridge and the surrounding battlefields.(Memorial Service to men of 87th Battalion who fell at Vimy Ridge. September 1917. Library and Archives Canada.)

But the military did not only honour its dead with ceremonies, it erected monuments to their fallen and lost comrades.(Canadian Artillery Memorial at Les Tilleuls Crossroads, Vimy Ridge. January 1918. Library and Archives Canada.)

... with an almost eerie yet comforting presence.(Graves of two officers of the Canadian Railway Troops killed while laying a railroad over Vimy Ridge. August 1917. Library and Archives Canada.)

They were meant not only to remember fallen comrades but to remind everyone who would come in the following years...(Grave of Pte. Brebner, 43^rd Battalion Vimy Ridge. July 1918. Library and Archives Canada.)

...that this place, like all great battlefields, is haunted by the spirit of the dead.(Canadian graves on Vimy. July 1917. Library and Archives Canada.)

(Detailed view of previous photo. Memorial erected to the soldiers of the 1^st Canadian Division who fell during the Battle of Vimy Ridge. February 1918. Library and Archives Canada.)

The same sense of sorrow and obligation to the dead that prompted the Canadian government to fashion a memorial park out of a scarred battlefield, often inspired the military to build memorials right where Canadians fell or close to important captures and targets (as seen here – a monument erected at an important crossroads and beside a dug-out entrance).(Memorial in the north of crossroads. Library and Archives Canada.)

Some of the early memorials at Vimy Ridge, considering the conditions in which they were erected, were monuments in their own right...(General Sir Arthur Currie, Canadian Corps Commander, unveiling the Memorial erected by Canadian Artillery in memory of artillery men who fell during the Battle of Vimy Ridge. February 1918. Library and Archives Canada.)

...and some, like this one built in a mine crater, were overpowering testimonials of care, love, loss and regret.(Memorial to men of the 2^nd Canadian Division who were killed at Vimy Ridge. Library and Archives Canada.)

King Edward VIII took time to pay his respects at even the most humble of these memorials, for each one was a powerful reminder of why we simply should not and cannot forget.(His Majesty the King reflecting upon a Canadian grave at Vimy Ridge. July 1917. Library and Archives Canada.)

Why then did we need to erect this great monument if all these memorials were already commemorating the lives lost during the Battle of Vimy Ridge? Simple. Given the area and the weather conditions in which most of the Great War was fought, many bodies were lost or swallowed by the mud. Our obligation to remember the 11,285 Canadian soldiers with no known grave was too great. They could only rest in peace if we, the living, promised to never forget... (The battlefield after a Canadian charge. Library and Archives Canada.)

Some were simple crosses...(Memorial to men of the 58th Canadian Infantry Battalion killed on Vimy Ridge. July 1918. Library and Archives Canada.)

The four-day assault in April 1917 cost the lives of 3,598 Canadian soldiers and officers. When one starts counting all those who died trying to take or defend the hill – British, French, Moroccans, as well as Canadians – the numbers become staggering... overwhelming... mind numbing.(Memorial erected to the soldiers of the 1^st Canadian Division who fell during the taking of Vimy Ridge. February 1918. Library and Archives Canada.)

There is a palpable sense of sanctity on Vimy Ridge that once inspired William Lyon MacKenzie King – Canadian Prime Minister when the idea for the Vimy Ridge Memorial was conceived – to refer to the ridge as consecrated, hallowed ground."The real memorial being the ridge itself, one of Earth’s altars, on which Canadians sacrificed for the cause of humanity." Prime Minister William Lyon MacKenzie King And, indeed, it is.(Memorial to men of a Canadian Division who fell on Vimy Ridge, at "La Folie" Farm. It bears the inscription: 3^rd Canadian Division. Library and Archives Canada.)