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Cenotaph - Soldiers Monument
In May of 1922 a Soldiers Monument was ordered from J.A.Tingley of Amherst. The Women’s Institute then purchased a lot of land offered for sale by Mr. Henry Heather on the corner of Prince William and Main Streets for the site. The site was known as Institute Park.
In June of 1923 the monument was delivered and was considered to be the first of its kind east of Montreal. It consisted of a large block of Peterhead gray granite surmounted by a Canadian Soldier, also carved in gray granite. The life sized uniformed soldier with rifle and bayonet stands ‘On Guard’. Inscribed on the front ‘Our Heroic Dead’ and on the corners the names of the great battles in which the Canadians fought. Thirty two names of Oxford area men killed in the Great War are engraved in the stone.
The July 5th, 1923 Oxford Journal: ‘the most imposing and impressive ceremony ever witnessed in Oxford were the exercises in connection with the unveiling of the splendid Soldiers Monument on July 2nd (Dominion Day)’.
Following WWII the names of 15 local men who lost their lives in service to their country were added to the monument. Also seen in this photograph is a large German gun captured by Canadian soldiers in WWI, which, at one time stood on the site of the Soldiers Monument.
Information sourced from The Oxford Journal archives.
In May of 1922 a Soldiers Monument was ordered from J.A.Tingley of Amherst. The Women’s Institute then purchased a lot of land offered for sale by Mr. Henry Heather on the corner of Prince William and Main Streets for the site. The site was known as Institute Park.
In June of 1923 the monument was delivered and was considered to be the first of its kind east of Montreal. It consisted of a large block of Peterhead gray granite surmounted by a Canadian Soldier, also carved in gray granite. The life sized uniformed soldier with rifle and bayonet stands ‘On Guard’. Inscribed on the front ‘Our Heroic Dead’ and on the corners the names of the great battles in which the Canadians fought. Thirty two names of Oxford area men killed in the Great War are engraved in the stone.
The July 5th, 1923 Oxford Journal: ‘the most imposing and impressive ceremony ever witnessed in Oxford were the exercises in connection with the unveiling of the splendid Soldiers Monument on July 2nd (Dominion Day)’.
Following WWII the names of 15 local men who lost their lives in service to their country were added to the monument. Also seen in this photograph is a large German gun captured by Canadian soldiers in WWI, which, at one time stood on the site of the Soldiers Monument.
Information sourced from The Oxford Journal archives.