Beach Memories: This Remembrance Day marks 80th anniversary of the cenotaph in the Beach

By GENE DOMAGALA

This year is the 100th anniversary of the Royal Canadian Legion.

And as Remembrance Day approaches, I also want to remind readers that this year is also the 80th anniversary of the building of a monument in Kew Gardens that honours all of the valiant Canadians who have served their country and those who gave their lives for our freedom. That monument is the Beach cenotaph at the north end of the park by Queen Street.

Originally, the Royal Canadian Legion was named (amongst other names) the Great War Veterans’ Association and was commonly referred to as the G.W.V.A. It had different ties to different military groups across Canada and it honoured those who served in the First World War.

In the East End, here in the Beach area of Toronto, a group was formed and located on the west side of Lee Avenue just north of Queen Street East.

On this Lee Avenue site, the G.W.V.A. had many different ceremonies to commemorate those who had served over the years since Canadian Confederation.

Many military officials and distinguished soldiers came to the Lee Avenue site to honour their comrades who had served our great country of Canada and remember those who died.

In 1926, the G. W. V. A. became the Royal Canadian Legion.

The hall on Lee Avenue later moved its operations to Kingston Road and Woodbine Avenue, and then later that became the Royal Canadian Legion Baron Byng Beaches Branch 1/42 on Coxwell Avenue, where they remain to this day.

So at this time of Remembrance Day (Nov. 11), we should all go out and remember those fallen soldiers and those who have served and are still serving.

Please do go to a Remembrance Day ceremony on Wednesday, Nov. 11. The ceremony at the Beach cenotaph will include the laying of wreaths, moment of silence, prayers and hymns. It begins at 10:45 a.m. and the moment of silence is at 11 a.m.

The Beaches Business Men’s Association created the cenotaph in Kew Gardens in 1946, and this is its 80th anniversary.

And remember the words of Canada’s John McCrae, a Canadian Army doctor who served and died in the First World War, in the final lines of his famous poem In Flanders Fields.

“If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.”