An impressive and somber war memorial stands at the confluence of Osborne St, St. Mary's Boulevard and Memorial Drive.
The cenotaph itself is octagonal, with four wide main faces and four narrow faces. The narrow faces are oriented o the northeast, southeast, southwest, and northwest.
The top of each of the side faces of the cenotaph feature a bronze memorial wreath and an unsheathed sword pointing downwards, symbols of death on the battlefield. Bronze lion heads are installed in the lower third of these narrower side faces, a symbol of the British monarchy and the ties that Canada has to Britain as a member of the Commonwealth.
The four main faces are oriented north, east, south, and west. Each is decorated with bronze plaques, the names of major WWI battles inset, and an engraved ancient oil lamp, a symbol of remembrance and honor.
The bas-relief dates 1914 and 1918 are placed at the bases of the main faces of the cenotaph, carved out of the stone, a reminder that in 1928 this was conceived as a WWI monument.
The memorial was originally created to honor the WWI war dead, but was later rededicated to Canada's WWI, WWII, and Korean War dead.
From the Manitoba Historic Sites website: (
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"This monument by local architect Gilbert Parfitt commemorating those killed during the First World War (1914-1918) was unveiled in Memorial Park in Winnipeg on 7 November 1928. It was subsequently rededicated to include those killed during the Second World War (1939-1945) and the Korean War (1950-1953)."
But that's not the whole story: (
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"Like every other major centre in Canada, Winnipeg wanted a cenotaph to honour its dead after the first World War. But the contest for the best war memorial almost started another war in Winnipeg.
Actually, there were two contests and the citizens finally awarded the commission for the cenotaph to a runner-up in the second contest.
The winning design of the first contest was submitted by a Mr. Emmanuel Hahn, an eminent Toronto sculptor, whose designs for war memorials had already been realized in several cities of Eastern Canada. But several groups of interested citizens in Winnipeg, including the Winnipeg Board of Trade, the Provincial Chapter of the I.O.D.E., the Traveller’s Association and the returned soldiers’ associations, vehemently protested the choice on the grounds of Mr. Hahn’s birthplace. Emmanuel Hahn had come to Canada in 1892 at the age of eleven and he was a naturalized Canadian but he was German born.
On 25 February 1926 at a war memorial meeting it was decided that Mr. Hahn should be paid the five hundred dollars for the prize design and that the contest should be re-opened to persons British-born or born in countries which were allies of Britain during the war. Tempers ran high at the meeting; appeals to British fair play were drowned out by cries of murder, and the cenotaph was almost forgotten in the heated discussion over Canadian citizenship which followed.
The second contest was won by a Canadian-born woman sculptor, Elizabeth Wood of Toronto, originally from Orillia, Ontario. Unfortunately, she happened to be the wife of Emmanuel Hahn. In November 1927, citizens rejected the decision of the judges because “it didn’t appeal to them”. Mrs. Hahn got her five hundred dollars and Gilbert Parfitt was chosen to do the cenotaph. The designer as well as the design was acceptable at last. Mr. Parfitt was a resident of Winnipeg who had been born in England and who had come to Canada in 1912. He later became the provincial architect for Manitoba.
The cenotaph was unveiled on 7 November 1928 and few people remember today that it almost started a war in Winnipeg."