The Elgin Military Museum is a privately-owned, not-for-profit

local museum A local museum or local history museum is a type of museum that shows the historical development of a place/region (local history) using exhibits. These museums usually maintain a collection of historic three-dimensional objects which are exh ...

in St. Thomas, Ontario,

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

. Founded in 1982 to preserve and commemorate the contributions of

Elgin County Elgin County is a county of the Canadian province of Ontario with a 2016 population of 50,069. Its population centres are St. Thomas, Aylmer, Port Stanley, Belmont, Dutton and West Lorne. The county seat is St. Thomas, which is separated from t ...

to broader

Canadian military history The military history of Canada comprises hundreds of years of armed actions in the territory encompassing modern Canada, and interventions by the Canadian military in conflicts and peacekeeping worldwide. For thousands of years, the area that woul ...

, the Museum includes exhibits on the

War of 1812 The War of 1812 (18 June 1812 – 17 February 1815) was fought by the United States, United States of America and its Indigenous peoples of the Americas, indigenous allies against the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, United Kingdom ...

, the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, the Cold War and the

War in Afghanistan War in Afghanistan, Afghan war, or Afghan civil war may refer to: *Conquest of Afghanistan by Alexander the Great (330 BC – 327 BC) * Muslim conquests of Afghanistan (637–709) *Conquest of Afghanistan by the Mongol Empire (13th century), see al ...

History

The Elgin Military Museum was established by veterans in 1982 to recognize the contributions of

. The museum recounts the stories of Elgin County residents (long or short term) from the

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...

. Exhibits include models made by craftsmen and a collection of some 600 UN and

NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO, ; french: Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique nord, ), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance between 30 member states – 28 European and two No ...

badges. Exhibits are not confined to the interior as the museum has two M113 armored personnel carriers on permanent display outside. The Elgin Military Museum also has space dedicated to an elephant,

Jumbo Jumbo (about December 25, 1860 – September 15, 1885), also known as Jumbo the Elephant and Jumbo the Circus Elephant, was a 19th-century male African bush elephant born in Sudan. Jumbo was exported to Jardin des Plantes, a zoo in Paris, and t ...

, the largest elephant ever held in captivity, died in St. Thomas, Ontario on September 15, 1885. In 1985, in commemoration of the 100th anniversary of his death, a life-size monument named " ''Jumbo the Elephant'' (Bronnum)" was installed outside roughly 100 yards up the road from the museum. Finding a home for the monument had been a significant problem until several members of the museum board (who served on the Jumbo Monument Committee) convinced other members of the board to permit the statue to be placed in the parking lot of the museum built on Talbot Street. This was the beginning of the menagerie, which also included kangaroo and dolphins.

HMCS ''Ojibwa''

In 2012, The Elgin Military Museum acquired a former ''Oberon''-class submarine, HMCS ''Ojibwa'' S72 At 90 meters in length and 15 meters high, she is the largest artifact in the collection. As the city of St. Thomas is landlocked, ex-''Ojibwa'' is located in Port Burwell, Ontario on Lake Erie. The submarine left Halifax, Nova Scotia in May 2012, arriving at Port Burwell in November that year with public tours beginning in the summer of 2013. The Elgin Military Museum was the recipient of both the provincial and national tourism awards for the tours at ex-''Ojibwa'' after its first year of operation.

Vimy Ridge and The Vimy Poppy

A prominent artifact at the Elgin Military Museum is the Vimy Poppy, which was picked by a soldier from St. Thomas on Vimy Ridge a few weeks after the battle began on April 9 1917, in memory of his fallen comrades. One of these soldiers was Lance Corporal Ellis Sifton who won the Victoria Cross that day but lost his life. The tiny box in which his effects were posted to his parents form part of a display in his honor.

Photos

File:Lewis gun St Thomas 6.JPG, Lewis gun and Lee–Enfield No 1. Mk 2 File:Escape Set German Uboat.JPG, German Uboat escape lung

Affiliations

The museum is affiliated with: CMA, CHIN, OMMC and

References

External links

The Elgin Military Museum official websiteVirtual Museum of Canada Elgin Military Museum websiteProject Ojibwa
{{Canadian Armed Forces Military and war museums in Canada History museums in Ontario Buildings and structures in St. Thomas, Ontario Museums in Elgin County