Date of birth: June 10, 1924
Age: 94 years old
From 1914 to 1918, over 700 faculty, alumni, and students from the University of Guelph enlisted for service during the First World War. Of those, 109 never returned. Students and Agricultural College faculty agreed that there needed to be a memorial erected in remembrance of those who lost their lives in the war. In 1919, the University of Guelph asked alumni to donate, for the first of many times to come, to the building of a memorial. They received $60,000 from alumni and $40,000 from the provincial government. Unfortunately, the Agricultural College faculty and students could not agree on a location; students wanted the site to be on the corner of Gordon Street and College Avenue, but there were Norway Spruce that the University did not want removed. Rather than continue arguing as to where to put the memorial, the students took matters into their own hands.In the middle of the night, they cut down the trees themselves and, using shovels and wheelbarrows, they excavated the foundations for the building.
Once the foundation was completed, the building was created with Georgetown limestone and War Memorial Hall officially opened on June 10, 1924, the 50th anniversary of the Agricultural College.
“Inside the entrance of War Memorial Hall stands a shovel in a glass case.”
Inside the entrance of War Memorial Hall stands a shovel in a glass case. This shovel was used by the Minister of Agriculture, the Honorable Manning Doherty, a graduate of the Agricultural College, in October 1921 to turn the first sod. The shovel was then put up for auction where it was purchased by the senior class of 1922 who outbid the women of the MacDonald Institute, paying $500.
The hall seats over 800 and was used as a cultural centre for the University and the city of Guelph. Many concerts and talks have been hosted in the building, including Sarah McLachlan, Rush, the National Youth Orchestra of Canada, and Jann Arden. Until February 2018, convocation was hosted in War Memorial Hall and easily felt as though the past presidents of the University, hung in portraits around the main hall, were watching as students crossed the stage. In an alcove, between the two front main entrances, is the Memorial Chapel. Behind gated doors, two bronze tablets face each other; the left plaque shows the names of the 109 fallen soldiers and the right plaque with the names of those who died during the Second World War from 1939 to 1945. The impact of these tablets affect alumni who walk through the building during Alumni Weekend and campus tours, but are often overlooked by students rushing to their next class. Two Books of Remembrance, one for the First World War and one for the Second World War, are laid on their own respective podiums and list the names of all who served in the armed forces. In the middle of the chapel, on a solid wooden table and surrounded by poppies, sits a book, In Flanders Fields, based on the poem by Guelph’s own John McCrae. The bold red of the book and poppies easily grab the attention of passersby but the dusty demeanor of the gated chapel separates past from present. The historical significance of the building is restricted behind gates and easily is bypassed. Yet, this space offers a chance to stop and acknowledge a part of our history and show our respects to those who went to war and those who created this permanent space of remembrance.
Dr. O.J. Stevenson, a noted writer and head of the English department for over 20 years, wrote a poem called “The Light of Remembrance” that is present in the chapel. Because of him, the light in “The Vaulted Room,” the Memorial Chapel, burn night and day — that is why the lights in the front of War Memorial Hall cannot be turned off.