Canadian Vimy Ridge Memorial

The Shell scared landscape of Vimy Ridge -90 years later
Credit: Burkepaterson.com

Canadian National Vimy Ridge Memorial

The Canadian National Vimy Ridge Memorial is a stunning piece of artwork and a landmark that looks over the Douai Plain and the Artois Region. The Vimy Ridge National Historic Site is visible for miles away, it towers over the landscape, the white granite monument is visible from the Notre Dame de Lorrette - France's largest National cemetery, which contains 40,000 French dead.

Notre Dame de Lorrette - France's largest Cemetery

This entry will showcase the Vimy Monument;  created by Walter Seymour Allward. Designer and Architect Allward was a renowned Canadian artist. Allward created monuments for the War of 1812, Boer War (South African War), Bell Telephone, Stratford War Memorial (1922), Brantford War Memorial (1933), and the Peterborough Citizens' Memorial (1929).

 

 

Mother Canada Mourning her lost sons.
Credit: BurkePaterson.com

Allward was a busy artist, while he was busy designing the Brantford and Peterborough Memorial, Walter Seymour Allward was also busy working on his latest commission from the Canadian Battlefields Memorials Commission in 1925 - Vimy Ridge. Allward and his labourers spent 11 years constructing Canada's largest Great War monument, on ground that many Canadians consider sacred. In the next few years Canadians will become very familiar with Allward and Vimy Ridge; Allward's work is now on the $20 tender.

                                  

New Canadian $20 tender
Credit: Bank of Canada & Global TV

                                            

                                          Walter Allward posing infront of his incomplete Vimy Ridge Monument
                                Credit: Library and Archives & mapleleafup.ca

Aerial view of Vimy Ridge dedication, 1936.
Credit: Library and Archives & mapleleaf.ca

Early 1930s - Laying foundation.
Credit: Library and Archives & mapleleafup.ca

Inscribing names of 11,000 Canadian soldiers that died in France with no known grave.
Credit: Library and Archives & mapleleafup.ca

Progress on the monument.
Credit: Library and Archives Canada & mapleleafup.ca

Early 1930s - In 1922 France donated 245 acres, centred on Hill 145 to Canada.
Credit: Library and Archives & mapleleafup.ca

Laying the base of the 24 foot tall monument base.
Credit: Library and Archives & mapleleafup.ca