The Sherbrooke War Memorial is a

cenotaph A cenotaph is an empty tomb or a monument erected in honour of a person or group of people whose remains are elsewhere. It can also be the initial tomb for a person who has since been reinterred elsewhere. Although the vast majority of cenot ...

erected in 1926, on King Street, in

Sherbrooke Sherbrooke ( ; ) is a city in southern Quebec, Canada. It is at the confluence of the Saint-François and Magog rivers in the heart of the Estrie administrative region. Sherbrooke is also the name of a territory equivalent to a regional cou ...

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...

, to commemorate Sherbrooke residents who fought in

World War I 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 ...

. This piece of cultural heritage has become emblematic of the city of Sherbrooke, which counts it among its ten main "points of interest". The monument was designed by George William Hill, one of the foremost Canadian sculptors of the first half of the 20th century.

Description

The

monument A monument is a type of structure that was explicitly created to commemorate a person or event, or which has become relevant to a social group as a part of their remembrance of historic times or cultural heritage, due to its artistic, hist ...

represents an

angel In various theistic religious traditions an angel is a supernatural spiritual being who serves God. Abrahamic religions often depict angels as benevolent celestial intermediaries between God (or Heaven) and humanity. Other roles inclu ...

with outspread wings (the goddess of

victory The term victory (from Latin ''victoria'') originally applied to warfare, and denotes success achieved in personal combat, after military operations in general or, by extension, in any competition. Success in a military campaign constitutes ...

) flying over three Canadian soldiers standing in a

trench A trench is a type of excavation or in the ground that is generally deeper than it is wide (as opposed to a wider gully, or ditch), and narrow compared with its length (as opposed to a simple hole or pit). In geology, trenches result from ero ...

. The four bronze figures were cast in Belgium. The pedestal, made of granite, comes from Stanstead, the "granite capital of Canada". The monument was built following the request of a committee of residents, on May 21, 1923. Later that year, the city council set aside $25,000 for the design of the monument, and launched a competition to find the artist that will design the monument. The drawing submitted by Hill won. In November 1925, Colonel Arthur Huffman McGreer, Principal of

Bishop's University Bishop's University (french: Université Bishop's) is a small English-language liberal arts university in Lennoxville, a borough of Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada. The founder of the institution was the Anglican Bishop of Quebec, George Mountain, w ...

, suggested including the list of Sherbrooke soldiers who fell during

. The final list, engraved on a bronze plate, comprises 248 names, published in

La Tribune ''La Tribune'' () is a French weekly financial newspaper founded in 1985 by Bruno Bertez. Its main competitor is the French newspaper '' Les Échos'', which is currently owned by LVMH. From 1993 to 2007, ''La Tribune'' was part of LVMH. In 2010 ...

the day before the monument was inaugurated. Hill affixed the plate on the pedestal of the statue, accompanied by the following bilingual epitaph: ''"Devant ses fils tombés ou survivants qui se sont illustrés au champ d'honneur Sherbrooke s'incline / 1914–1918 / To the men and women of Sherbrooke who fought and fell for their country and their god"''. On 7 November 1926, eight years after the end of the war, the monument was officially opened by the Mayor of Sherbrooke at the time, James Keith Edwards, before more than 20,000 people. During the ceremony, the family members of the soldiers, Sherbrooke personalities and other dignitaries settled in the stands. To watch the event, many of the estimated 15 000 spectators made to mount environments: they climb trees, climb on the roofs of buildings or access to the balconies of buildings and bell tower of the Church of St. Patrick. The newspapers of the time show that the crowd remained calmed with the intensity of the moment and the beauty of the statue, when the white sheet covering was removed. On November 7, 1948, another plate, on which is written ''"Leur souvenir vivra éternellement"'' ("May their memories be eternal") was added, in memory of the soldiers who fought during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

. The statue was restored during the summer of 2009 by the Centre de conservation du Québec at a cost of $60 300, shared between the Restoration Program Cenotaph and Memorial Veterans Affairs Canada (the federal government ) and the Ville de Sherbrooke. In 2009, the value of the installation was estimated at $900,000 Canadian.

References

{{reflist Culture of Sherbrooke Cenotaphs in Canada World War I memorials in Canada Buildings and structures in Sherbrooke Monuments and memorials in Quebec Heritage buildings of Quebec