Galt's War Memorial and Garden of Remembrance

Galt’s war memorial looks much as it did 92 years ago when it was unveiled in a ceremony that was called the grandest the city had ever seen.

On the fall afternoon when it was unveiled, the Galt Kiltie Band, as well as the Highland Light Infantry Band and the band from the Salvation Army, were accompanied by a mass choir from all of the town’s churches.

It was Thanksgiving Day, November 10, 1930, and 10,000 people had gathered, among them many veterans of the Great War, as well as members of the Silver Cross, wives and mothers of those men who had given their lives during the war.

The Minister of National defence, Lt.-Colonel Hon. Donald M. Sutherland, D.S.C., M.D., was joined at the podium by Galt’s own Captain Harry F. MacKendrick, M.D., R.A.M.C., who chaired the War Memorial committee.

There were three MacKendricks of note on hand that afternoon; in addition to Dr. MacKendrick, his son Captain Harry Crane MacKendrick, Acting A.D.C., Regimental Adjutant, Queen’s Own Rifles, Toronto, was among the dignitaries, as was his uncle, John Noble MacKendrick. 

All the MacKendricks were Galt Collegiate graduates, with young Harry, of the Queen’s Own Rifles, being the most recent graduate. He had risen far in the years since he was commissioned on December 3, 1916, in the Canadian Expeditionary Force as Lieutenant with the 111th Overseas Battalion. At GCI he was a standout in everything he did, including playing football on a team that included Hubert Evans, who would become a noted Canadian writer. 

In November 1916 the young MacKendrick was transferred to the 4th Canadian Mounted Rifles and two months later, was injured and suffered gas poisoning from the shell—his schoolmate Evans was also injured during the war—and was operated on by his own father, who was serving as a military surgeon.

Later, Dr. MacKendrick, the chair of the unveiling ceremony in 1930, was himself injured severely during the war, and walked with a limp the rest of his life.

The third MacKendrick on hand that afternoon in 1930 was John Noble MacKendrick, one of the leading men at the Gore. The Gore District Fire Insurance Company had a long and distinguished history in the community, and had donated the lot on which the memorial was built.

Distinguished though all three were in their own rights, the elder brothers were also former world canoeing champions. Dr. MacKendrick, a member of the Cambridge Sports Hall of Fame, was world singles champion and also won the pairs title with his brother John Noble at the 1890 world championships on Long Island, New York. 

The entire MacKendrick clan was distinguished; in 1962 Harry Crane MacKendrick was appointed honorary Lieutenant-Colonel by Queen Elizabeth the Second. Earlier, in 1944, he had been awarded the Order of the British Empire.

At the memorial’s unveiling in 1930, four uniformed veterans stood guard at each corner of the monument. The stillness of the afternoon was broken at 2:30 p.m. when the combined bands and choir broke the silence with the singing of “O Canada.”

Then Dr. MacKendrick spoke:

“Ladies and gentlemen, I have the honour to be chairman today at the unveiling of this War Memorial in the Garden of Remembrance, erected in memory of the brave men from Galt and vicinity who gave up their lives in the Great War for right and freedom, and I wish, on behalf of the War Memorial committee to thank all the generous donors who made it possible for us to erect this fitting monument to our heroes.”

The bands, whose combined instruments numbered more than 100, together with the massed choir of more than 200 voices and the assembled crowd of 10,000, sang the hymn “Oh God Our Help in Ages Past.” No more stirring sound and sight ever graced the Grand River valley at Galt.