Visiting Great War Museums and Memorials

Here is a list of some of the museums, memorials, and other interesting sources of information on the Great War. The information is in the following categories:

• Places to visit in Central Ontario, Canada
• Places to visit in the United States
• Places to visit in Belgium and France
• Places to visit in the United Kingdom
• Other sources of Great War information in Canada

• Military Auctions and Collectors in Canada with Web Sites
• Military Auctions and Collectors in USA and UK

We are slowly investigating and recording these memorials and museums as time permits, most of the information is discovered by talking with people at the various medal shows and meetings. If anyone has information to add, please email Benjamin Keevil a one-sentence description and URL if available.

Places to visit in Central Ontario, Canada

• In North Toronto, at the Anglican Church of the Transfiguration on Manor Road East at the top of the hill between Yonge Street and Mount Pleasant Road, there is a three by four foot brass plaque dedicated to the 58th CEF Battalion that reads.

  TO THE GLORY OF GOD
  AND IN HONOURED MEMORY OF
  THE 851 MEMBERS
  OF THE
  58TH CAN: INF: BN:
  WHO GAVE UP THEIR LIVES
  IN THE GREAT WAR
  1914 1918.
  THIS TABLET
  IS ERECTED BY THEIR COMRADES

  It is interesting that the cubs and scouts group at the Church of the Transfiguration was also the 58th. Benjamin Keevil grew up a few blocks from the church and was a member of the 58th scouts for a few years. At the church there is also a nine by six inch brass plaque on a wooden lecturn that reads.

  TO THE GLORY OF GOD
  AND
  IN LOVING MEMORY OF
  JOHN HOLT
  CUBMASTER 1923-28
  FROM
  THE 58TH WOLF CUB PACK
  "GREATER LOVE HATH NO MAN THAN THIS"
  

• In Toronto, the war memorial at the old Toronto City Hall, dedicated on July 24, 1925, by Field Marshall Earl Haig, the Commander in Chief of the British forces in the Great War.
• In Toronto, at the waterfront park near the Princess Gates of the Canadian National Exhibition, there are two rows of elm trees with stone plaques dedicated to various Great War battalions.
• In Toronto, "SONS OF ENGLAND MEMBERS KILLED IN THE GREAT WAR", a WW1 war memorial at the intersection of University Ave. and Elm Street, south side in the median, by Chas. Adamson, Sculpter, 1923. "ERECTED BY MEMBERS OF TORONTO DISTRICTS SONS OF ENGLAND BENEFIT SOCIETY OF THOSE WHO FELL DURING THE GREAT WAR".
• In Toronto, the Queen's Own Rifles has a museum
• In Toronto, the 48th Highlanders has a Museum [link broken in Dec 2004] at St. Andrew's Church, 75 Simcoe Street, Toronto, Ontario, M5J 1W9. Hours Wednesdays and Thursdays, 10 AM to 3 PM.
• In Toronto, The Toronto Scottish Regiment Museum, Fort York Armoury, 75th Battalion, 9th M.H., 650 Fleet St. Toronto, Ontario, M5V 1A9. The Curator is Tim Stewart, C.D. B.A. B.Ed. Telephone H - 416.251.9393.
• In Toronto, the St. Andrew's church has a memorial
• In Toronto, the St. Paul's church has a memorial with a sword
• In Toronto, near Yonge St and the 401 there is a church with a memorial
• Near Toronto, The Canadian Military Studies Museum, located Hyw 401 at the old Hyw 6 Brock Rd., then two traffic lights north. Telephone 905.877.6522, gift shop weekly 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
• In Toronto, every year there is usualy a new play about the Great War. For example, The Lost Boys February 7 to March 9, 2002.
  A true story. R.H. Thomson conjures the lives of his five great uncles who fought for this country. Stunning theatrical simplicity. Written by and starring R.H. Thomson, The Lost Boys brings to life the experiences of five Canadian soldiers in WWI through the eyes of a nephew who wishes he knew more. To create this deeply personal piece, R.H. Thomsom sifted through over 700 letters written by his great-uncles and preserved by his great-aunt. "Though it concerns too many young men who never came home from the Great War, the play's about more than war, it's also about why you never ask, and what you lose when you never ask," says R.H. Thomson. Produced by: Canadian Stage Company Website: www.canstage.com Location: Canadian Stage Theatre, 26 Berkeley St., Toronto, Ontario, Canada 416.368.3110

• In Woodbridge just north of Toronto, the Woodbridge War Memorial Tower, 80 Wallace Street, . In 1924, the local community built the tower as a memorial to those who served in the Great War.

• In Halton Hills just west of Toronto, the Canadian Military Studies Museum owned by Frank Grant. Telephone 905.877.6522 to make an appointment.

• In Oshawa, the Ontario Regiment Museum.

• At the south field of the Oshawa airport, a private museum mainly about the Canadian Air Force, was initiated and maintained for years by Robert Stuart until his death in about 2003. A fascinating museum to visit, includes historical pictures of WW1 airplanes. Also has WW2 Canadian spy school tools, such as a radio in a suitcase and a pistol in a book. Hopefully, the museum will be maintained by the Stuart family. There is also another municipal museum in the south field. If you find these instructions confusing, stop and ask for directions at 1000 Stevenson Road North.

• In Guelph, the McCrae House at 108 Water Street is the birthplace of Colonel John McCrae, respected physician, military officer, and author of the poem "In Flanders Fields". For more information, email to gcmchin@istar.ca, or telephone 519.836.1221, or in Canada telephone 800.334.4519, or you can check out the home page of the City of Guelph.

• In Brantford, there is a military museum but in December 2004 the link was broken.

• In Ottawa, at the Chateau Laurier hotel, there is a plaque dedicated to the Canadian Machine Gun Corps. The Canadian Machine Gun Corps had its beginning in the Chateau Laurier hotel. In August 1914, Major Raymond Brutinel (Brig. Gen. Raymond Brutinel, C.B., CMG, DSO) enrolled the first recruits for the Corps.
• In Ottawa, at the old Canadian War Museum, at 330 Sussex Drive, there was a First World War trench, uniforms, medals, an oil on canvas painting by F.H. Varley (1881-1969) titled "For What?, a plaque with the signatures of all the Canadian Battalion leaders as at November 11, 1918. For example, in the 3rd Canadian Division:
  • 9th - D.M. Ormonds
  • 43rd - W.K. Chandler (spelling?)
  • 52nd - W.W. Foster
  • 58th - R.A. MacFarlane, Lieut-Col
  • 116th - Dougall Carmichael

• In Ottawa at the Vimy House of the Canadian War Museum at 221 Champagne Avenue North, there is a WW1 Canadian General Service Wagon, Mk III, 1914-1918. This wagon was used on an English farm for half a century before being donated to the museum. There is also part of a plane flown by W.G. Barker V.C., D.S.O, M.C. On display is a German 77-mm Field Gun C-96 that was captured from the Germans and adapted by the British for use on naval vessels. The C-96, with a range of 8,400 meters was the standard German field gun during the First World War until replaced by the FK-16 in 1916. Also on display is a French 75-mm M1897 field gun that was used by France throughout the First World War. This M1897 field gun was in use from 1897 to 1945 and can be considered the first modern quick-fire artillary piece with its successful hydraulic reload system and Nordenfeld breech block.

• In Ottawa, Dennis Thomassen, the owner of Fresh Air Experience, has about 25 bikes in his collection dating from 1866 to 1984. Includes one First World War military bicycle. Canada sent about 1,200 men to war on bicycles.

• In Kingston, the Military Communications and Electronics Museum, telephone 613.541.5395 has a replica of a WW1 cable-laying wagon and WW1 field telephones (also, the WW2 Field Telephone TA-43/PT of American origin that is currently used by the Canadian Forces. Also, the Kingston museum has a unique memorial hall with the original castings of some of the statues that won the competition for the Vimy Ridge monument in France. For $200 CAD you can have a memorial plaque constructed and displayed at the museum.

• In Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, the Niagara Historical Society and Museum, 43 Caslereagh Street, Niagara-on-the-Lake. Open year round. Tel 905.468.3912

• Half way between Fergus and Elora and about an hour west of Toronto, the Wellington County Museum & Archives has an excellent exhibit on the Great War called Far from Home - a soldier's life at the Front, 1914-1918. Open year round. In August, there is a classic car show at the museum. The museum is only a few hundred metres from the newly-renovated railway bridge which offers a stunning, 70-foot high view of the Grand River gorge.

• Memorial Military Museum, 226 Albert Lane, Campbellford (1 block south of Tims), Ontario.

• In Keswick, just north of Newmarket on Woodbine Avenue, the Georgina Military Museum includes a virtual bunker where you can hear the wail of air raid sirens followed by the drone of hundreds of airplanes, then the terrifying whine of falling bombs and the thud, thud, thud as they come ever closer, explosions mingled with the ragged chatter of anti-aircraft guns.

Places to visit in the United States

• Honoring Private Ryan of the CEF 58th - On November 11, 2006, the city of Chelsea, Massachusetts (north of Boston), USA unveiled an updated memorial stone to honor some of their residents who served during the Great War. Among the men honored were a group of CEF, BEF, and American servicemen. Many of the boys to be honored were discovered in 2006 by some local high school students. Apparently, when the city erected their Great War plaque in 1935, the names were missed. For more information, please contact Ernie Sullivan (babysullivan1@msn.com).

  The men that were honored include:

  1. Crombie, William Edgar, 2nd Battery, Rescue Brigade
  2. Evans, George Ernest, 102nd Bn.
  3. Gillis, Peter, 13th Bn., Quebec Regiment
  4. Glouster, Earl, 79th Company Canadian Forestry Corps
  5. Goodwin, Harper H., 116th Bn., Central Ontario Regiment
  6. Hayes, Malcomb P., 3rd Bn., Central Ontario Regiment
  7. Livingstone, Rodger M., 44th Bn., New Brunswick Regiment
  8. Martin, Elijah. 4th Canadian Mounted Rifles 2ND Cent. Ontario Regiment
  9. McCance, John J., (Black Watch) 13th Bn., Quebec City Regiment
  10. McKinley, John H., 25th Bn., Nova Scotia Regiment
  11. Murray, Robert T., 21st Bn., Eastern Ontario Regiment
  12. Ryan, Herbert Lewis, 58th Bn., Central Ontario Regiment - Born Oct 24, 1892 - KIA Aug 27, 1918 - Service Number 3031110 Private Ryan's Attestation Paper
  13. Woodland, Trafton P., 10th Bn., Alberta Regiment

• National World War I Museum - A new museum that opened in December 2006 in Kansas City, Missouri. The museum contains 49,000 artifacts and was financed by the citizens of Kansas City by adding a half cent to the sales tax. The museum is at the site of the 217-foot limestone Liberty Memorial tower that was dedicated by President Calvin Coolidge in 1926 in honor of those who died in WW1.

  When you go stay at the Hilton President, 1329 Baltimore, 816.221.9490, 213 rooms with complementary parking.

• New York City Monuments - A survey of New York City World War I Monuments, contributed by Laura Canon (lauracanon AT yahoo DOT com)

Places to visit in Belgium and France

• The Memorial Museum Passchendaele 1917 - in Zonnebeke, Belgium has started a major new project: the Passchendaele Archives. The third battle of Ypres ended when the Canadians took the destroyed village of Passchendaele in November 1917. Before them, the British and Australians suffered many casualties. Many men died, some of them have a grave, others have not. The projects aims are to put faces and personal stories on the headstones and names of the victims of the battle of Passchendaele. The museum is looking for photographs of soldiers who died between July 12, 1917 and November 15, 1917 in the Ypres Salient.
  For more information, contact Jan Van der Fraenen, (jan.vanderfraenen@zonnebeke.be), Passchendaele Archives, coördinator Memorial Museum Passchendaele 1917, Ieperstraat 5, B-8980 Zonnebeke, tel 0032 51 77 04 41, fax 0032 51 78 07 50 in Belgium.

• The Commonwealth War Graves Commission in Ypres. Ask for a copy of their annual report.

• The In Flanders Fields museum in Ypres, Belgium. Captures the spirit of the soldiers in Flanders while promoting world-wide peace.

• The Vimy Ridge memorial in northern France, you can tour the underground trenches. Canadian visitors receive a copy of the 40-page booklet, "Canada in the First World War and the Road to Vimy Ridge" from Veteran Affairs Canada.

• The Varlet Farm bed and breakfast right on the battlefields just south west of Passchendaele and only 5 miles (9 km) from Ypres. Dirk and Charlotte Cardoen-Descamps provide excellent accommodation, food, and information on the Great War. To make a reservation, call or fax (0032) 51 777 859 after 7pm (Belgium time) or e-mail Charlotte at varlet.farm@pi.be -- the postal address is Varlet Farm, Wallemolenstraat 43 8920, Poelkapelle, Belgium. They are open the whole year round. Check out the summary and photo of Varlet Farm on the Hellfire Corner site.

• The The Shell Hole WW1 military shop, bar, bed and breakfast in Ypres. Telephone 32.57.20.87.58, address D'HONDTSTRAAT 54 B-8900 Ieper, Belgium. The books, breakfast, coffee, and informal contacts are very helpful.

• The Historical de la Grande Guerre, at Péronne on the Somme is the only international museum of the Great War in France.

Places to visit in the United Kingdom

• Imperial War Museum, you can purchase WW1 photographs from the Department of Photographs, Lambeth Road, London SE1 6HZ. A visitor's room is open to the public by appointment. An audio cassette tape, The First World War Remembered, interviews on trench warfare and the home front, produced by the Imperial War Museum in England, 320 BF (Belgium Francs), and also available at the "In Flanders Fields" museum in Ypres (Ieper), Belgium.

• A bookstore, called W.G.Foyle Books, at Charing Cross in London where there is a sizeable section on the First World War.

Other sources of Great War information in Canada

• A video tape on the Canadian Group of Seven artists at the Great War, produced by the CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) and directed by Neil Brenan.

• A one-person play, In Flanders Fields -- listen to the larks, on the life of John McRae, produced by the Smile Theatre Company in Toronto, directed by Tom Kneebone, 1998.

• The Military History Society of Manitoba, Box 131, Winnipeg, MB, Canada, R3C 2G1, email Bruce Tascona, Archivist at tasconab@mb.sympatico.ca in Winnipeg. The Society has reprints and copies of documents available by mail, for example: Sketch histories of CEF units $2.00 CAD; "Canada Militia Lists", Sailing lists (Nominal Roles) of names and last addresses of the CEF Battalions; "Instructions for the Training of Platoons for Offensive Action 1917", 26 pages, two-color diagrams, $7.95 CAD; "The organization of an Infantry Battalion and the Normal Formation for the Attack", 15 pages, $5.95.

Military Auctions and Collectors in Canada with Web Sites

• TOREX Military and Coin Auction - held at the Novotel hotel, 45 The Esplanade in downtown Toronto. Usually the viewing is on Friday, with the auction on Saturday (1000 to 1700 hours) and Sunday (1000 to 1500 hours).
• Waddington's Auction, 111 Bathurst Street, Toronto, Ontario, M5V 2R1. Email info@waddingtons.ca
• Vimy Ridge Gallery in PO Box 233, Buckhorn, ON. K0L 1J0, 657-8763, near Peterborough, Ontario - frames war medals and papers in a three-dimensional collage.
• Ashbrook Coins Stamps Antiques and Collectibles, 911 Richmond Road Ottawa, ON Canada K1A 0G8 Tel 613.798.9911. Owned by Andrew Driega.
• Ottawa Militaria Show
• Military Antiquarian Inc. - Eugene G. Ursual in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
• Vimy Militaria website - in Kingston, Ontario

Military Auctions and Collectors in USA and UK

• International Military Antique Shows, November 19, 20, and 21, 1999 at the Drawbridge Estate, Interstate 75 and Buttermilk Pike, Fort Mitchell, Kentucky, 41017, telephone 1.800.354.9793
• International Military Antique Shows, September 24, 25, and 26, 1999 Northern Kentucky Convention Center, 1 West RiverCenter Blvd., Covington KY 41011.
• International Military Antique Shows, Show of Shows, February 24 to 27, 2000, sponsored by the Ohio Valley Military Society, Inc., Kentucky Fair and Exposition Center, South Wing A, I-264 and I65, exit 131-B, Louisville, Kentucky, 40233
• Speed Bid Auction in UK