A cairn made of flat rough cut stones with a small cross atop, the cenotaph has not always been in its present location. When first built in 1968 by local contracting firm Max Helmer Construction Ltd. the cenotaph stood near the present site of the Windermere Valley Museum, at Third Street & Sixth Avenue, about 775 metres north. It was moved to its downtown location in 2014, "
in time for the 2014 Remembrance Day service", also by Max Helmer Construction Ltd.
On opposite sides of the cenotaph are black granite plaques commemorating the dead of the first and second world wars, the First World War plaque on the south side, the Second World War plaque on the north side, with a smaller Korean War plaque below it.
There is a
controversy surrounding the cenotaph concerning the possible loss of a Boer War plaque. Some insist it was once part of the cenotaph yet most people do not remember there ever having been a Boer War plaque associated with the cenotaph. A smattering of the details of the "
Mystery of the Missing Boer War Plaque", from the Invermere Valley Echo, follows.
Mystery of the ‘missing’ plaque uncovers history
by Steve Hubrecht - Invermere Valley Echo
posted Mar 30, 2016 at 8:00 AM
The mystery surrounding whether or not a plaque commemorating the Boer War ever existed on the Invermere cenotaph — and if it did, what has since happened to it — has continued to roil during the past few weeks.
As previously reported (March 9th Echo), Fairmont Hot Springs resident David Gibson had written in to The Echo saying that a plaque commemorating the Boer had “disappeared when the park was redone some ten years ago.”
The Echo began looking into the matter and found that neither Invermere’s mayor or chief administrative officer Chris Prosser remembered when it had gone missing, or even what it looked like. The matter seemed settled when local Legion president Ken Carlow told The Echo “there never was one (a Boer War plaque).” All parties agreed, however, that there should be such a plaque, and Carlow said the Legion was hoping to get it done this year. The mystery seemed solved with a happy ending to boot.
Not so fast.
Gibson called The Echo after the March 9th story, outlining his certainty about the Boer War plaque.
“There definitely was a plaque, there’s no doubt about it. There are quite a few people in town that know about it, especially the older people. It was a small plaque, it was probably two foot by two foot square. It was on a concrete pylon at the cenotaph,” he said. “I’ve looked everywhere and I can’t find it.”
Gibson said that according to long-time resident Joy Bond, somebody on council knows what happened to it.
But The Echo contacted each of Invermere’s fours councillors individually, and none of them could recall ever seeing the plaque, nor had any idea where it might now be. Councillor Al Miller contacted Legion member Howie Williams, who also couldn’t remember the plaque, but had still undertaken a search for it a while ago. That search came back empty. When contacted, Joy Bond said she was researching the plaque, but couldn’t recall ever seeing it.
Read more at the Invermere Valley Echo