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

A Newfoundland and Labrador Heritage Web Site Partner Project. Created under contract to Canada’s Digital Collections, Industry Canada.

The National War Memorial in St. John’s is the most elaborate of all the post-war monuments. It was erected at King’s Beach on Water Street where, 350 years earlier, Sir Humphrey Gilbert claimed Newfoundland for England.

Commemorative plaque. The inscription on the monument reads: “Close to this commanding and historic spot Sir Humphrey Gilbert landed on the 5th day of August 1583 and in taking possession of this new found land in the name of his sovereign Queen Elizabeth thereby founded Britain’s overseas empire,” 1998. Photo by Lisa Dwyer. (32 Kb)

Father Thomas Nangle supervised the construction of the National War Memorial. The statuary was the work of the same sculptor who designed the caribou in Europe, Captain Basil Gotto (“Newfoundland’s National” 47).

The design is filled with symbolism. On the pinnacle of the monument is a nine-foot maiden with a sword and a torch. She represents the spirit or morale of Newfoundland:

Having dropped the net, she has seized the torch which is immortalized in Lt. Col. John McCrae’s poem “To you we throw the torch,” and with an impulse to the fore has aroused the manhood of the Island, represented by a soldier upon the right and a sailor on her left, who are impelled forward by the irresistible emotion which she has stirred (“Newfoundland’s National” 48).

National War Memorial, St. John’s, 1998. Photo by Lisa Dwyer. (21 Kb)

Between the soldier and the sailor are statues representing the Newfoundland Mercantile Marine and the Forestry Corps.

National War Memorial, St. John’s, ca. 1925. Courtesy of the Provincial Archives of Newfoundland and Labrador (PANL E-23-23), St. John’s, Newfoundland. (43 Kb)

Unveiling the National War Memorial, St. John’s, July 1, 1924. Courtesy of the Provincial Archives of Newfoundland and Labrador (PANL E-47-40), St. John’s, Newfoundland. (60 Kb)

The Image Gallery has further images depicting scenes from the construction of the National War Memorial and of its unveiling on July 1, 1924, by Sir Douglas Haig.