Managing the War Effort Home Front Newfoundlanders at War Commemorations Overseas At Home National War Memorial Bibliography

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Across Newfoundland, communities large and small looked for suitable ways to commemorate their war dead. The residents of Botwood raised enough money to purchase a 12-foot grey granite obelisk from D. Beveridge and Son of Perth, Scotland. The obelisk was unveiled July 1, 1921. Inscribed on it were the names of those who had made the supreme sacrifice, their epitaph, “Their names liveth for evermore.” In the small outport community of Arnold’s Cove, some 30 families purchased a plain granite shaft which they erected as a memorial to their war dead on August 7, 1921.

The fraternal organizations were also involved. On September 8, 1921, the Loyal Orange Association in Trinity erected a monument with the names of the five Orangemen and ten non-Orangemen who had fallen inscribed on what became a community memorial (“Trinity’s” 51).

On the Burin Peninsula, monuments were erected at Fortune, Burin, and Lamaline. The full cost of the Fortune war memorial was met by the people themselves with the assistance of the Great War Veterans Association. In Grand Falls on July 23, 1922, a replica of the Cenotaph in London was unveiled on Station Road. The $8,000 monument was paid for by the people of Grand Falls with assistance from the Anglo-Newfoundland Development Company.

Memorial University College, Parade Street, St. John’s, 1924. Courtesy of the Provincial Archives of Newfoundland and Labrador (PANL NA-39-96), St. John’s, Newfoundland. (41 Kb)

War Memorial 1914–18, Grand Falls-Windsor, n.d. Courtesy of the Provincial Archives of Newfoundland and Labrador (PANL A-37-56), St. John’s, Newfoundland. (32 Kb)

War Memorial, Grand Bank, n.d. Courtesy of the Provincial Archives of Newfoundland and Labrador (PANL NA-60-88), St. John’s, Newfoundland. (42 Kb)

There were other permanent forms of memorials established as well. The Knights of Columbus in St. John’s established the Knights of Columbus Memorial School to promote Catholic education in Newfoundland. The school was built as an extension of the already existing Academy of Our Lady of Mercy near the Catholic Cathedral. The building contained 12 large classrooms, a domestic science room, music and dressing rooms, a water fountain and a large auditorium.