PROJECT UPDATES

Construction is scheduled to begin Spring 2023. Check back here for regular updates.

 

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[Updated 08 Aug 2022]

This project will create a single place of remembrance for all Canada’s fallen heroes – an installation that families, friends and the people of Canada can visit and pay homage to our war dead. It will honour our fallen in all conflicts of record starting with the earliest. Although most of our war dead are buried in foreign lands, have no known grave or died at sea, this marker will bring our boys and girls home.

This will not be a war memorial taking the place of local cenotaphs or sacred memorials that already exist. It will have two components: a series of panels portraying the various conflicts Canada has engaged in, and a virtual “Wall,” www.canadianfallen.ca. A presentation of names of each fallen hero together with biographies and photographs. Annually a glossy magazine will focus on aspects of the various conflicts with reviews, editorials, memoirs, stories, verse, and memorials to heroes who paid the supreme sacrifice for our country.

The right location for the installation is crucial. The National Wall of Remembrance Association believes that Kingston, Ontario, is the right place, for Kingston is the birthplace of much of the present Canadian Armed Forces.

Under the French regime, Cataraqui as it was then known became a defended trading post in 1673 consisting almost entirely of Fort Frontenac and its garrison. After its conquest by General Bradstreet in 1758 it fell into British hands. In 1783, following the American Revolutionary War, it became the “King’s Town” and the focal point of British Empire Loyalist settlement. Fort Frontenac has had a military function ever since – after the British troops left in 1871 most notably as Téte de Pont Barracks, home of the Royal Canadian Horse Artillery, and then as the Canadian Army Staff College and its Canadian Armed Forces successors. In 1903, Canadian Boer War hero, Major Bruce Carruthers, established the first independent school of military signalling in the British Empire in Kingston.

The Royal Military College (RMC), established in 1874, was built on the site of the earliest Canadian civil-marine and naval stations. HMCS Cataraqui, one of Canada’s leading naval reserve units, carries on that fine tradition today. Old Fort Henry, along with its associated Martello Towers, was built as part of Canada’s defences in the 1830s on the site of an earlier wooden fort and is today one of the country’s outstanding tourist attractions. It is a designated National Historic Site guarding the entrance to the Rideau Canal, itself a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Kingston was the first capital of the United Province of Canada.

Today, Canadian Forces Base (CFB) Kingston directly employs more than 8,000 regular soldiers, reserves and civilians. It provides support for operations in Afghanistan and training and education through the schools of Military Intelligence and Communications. It provides higher education at RMC and trains staff officers at the Canadian Forces Land Command and Staff College. At any time, some 2,500 students are attending one or other of the base military or educational schools. CFB Kingston also sends some 600 sailors, soldiers, airmen and women on operational duties each year in support of United Nations operations around the world.

All in all then, the Limestone City is the natural choice for this noble and patriotic installation – a gesture and gift to Canada’s posterity that will only grow over the years as the full potential of this 21st century salute to our fallen comrades is developed and the torch is passed from hand to hand by a dedicated group of public-spirited and patriotic citizens. This endeavour will be something that any true Canadian can be proud of – a gift to last.

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DONATIONS
The NWORA received charity status from Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) in Nov 2021. Donations are accepted at any time to help fund our ongoing projects such as our planned endowment to maintain our main Memorial and other initiatives such as the Community Memorials Programme as well as our other secondary objective, our Education Outreach Programme. See the Donations tab on this website for further information.

Please do not hesitate to contact us for queries and/or additional details.