Veterans Memorial Park is a small treed park adjoining the north side of the provincial courthouse. Completed in 2012, Veterans Memorial Park contains this tall World War I Cenotaph as well as memorials honouring the Canadian Naval Forces, the police forces of Canada and the Firefighters of Canada.
A tall granite obelisk, the cenotaph was erected by the Great War Veterans' Association as a World War I memorial in 1920, to which was later added plaques honouring the veterans of World War II. The Great War Veterans' Association, created in 1917, was a precursor of the Canadian Legion, which was created in 1925.
Below is the text from the cenotaph.
[west side]
TO
THE GLORY OF
GOD
AND THE SPLENDID MEMORY OF
PENTICTON MEN
WHO FELL IN THE GREAT WAR
1914-1918
"THEIR NAME LIVETH FOREVERMORE"
IN GRATEFUL MEMORY OF
THE MEN OF PENTICTON AND
DISTRICT WHO SACRIFICED
THEIR LIVES IN THE WAR
1939-1945
[north side]
THE FOLLOWING
CANADIAN AND IMPERIAL TROOPS
WERE REPRESENTED BY THE MEN
TO WHOSE HONOUR
THIS MONUMENT WAS ERECTED
A.D. 1920
ROYAL AIR FORCE ROYAL FIELD ARTILLERY CANADIAN FIELD ARTILLERY ROYAL FUSILIERS ESSEX REGIMENT PRINCESS PATRICIA'S CAN. L.I. 2ND CAN. MOUNTED RIFLES 8TH CANADIAN INFANTRY 10TH CANADIAN INFANTRY 13TH CANADIAN INFANTRY 7TH CANADIAN INFANTRY |
15TH CANADIAN INFANTRY 25TH CANADIAN INFANTRY 29TH CANADIAN INFANTRY 45TH CANADIAN INFANTRY 47TH CANADIAN INFANTRY 50TH CANADIAN INFANTRY 54TH CANADIAN INFANTRY 78TH CANADIAN INFANTRY 102ND CANADIAN INFANTRY ROYAL ARMY SERVICE CORPS |
[east side]
DULCE ET DECORUM
EST
PRO PATRIA MORI
[south side]
"SEEK YE OUT OF THE BOOK OF THE LORD AND READ"
ISAIAH XXIV, 16
"GREATER LOVE HATH NO MAN THAN THIS THAT A MAN LAY DOWN HIS LIFE FOR HIS FRIENDS,"
JOHN XV, 13
"FOR THE TRUMPET SHALL SOUND AND THE DEAD SHALL BE RAISED INCORRUPTIBLE", I COR., XV, 57