it’s time to pay tribute · it’s time to pay tribute “peace has its heroes as well as war,...
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Lost sons, fathers, husbands and brothers.A PLACE TO REMEMBER
Welland Canal Fallen Workers Memorial
Your support will honour the fallen.
Our funders and project partners are working to remember:FUNDING PARTNERS
Niagara Regional Labour Council
PROJECT PARTNERS
Canadian Canal SocietyNiagara Folk Arts Multicultural CentreWelland Canals Foundation
IT’S TIME TO PAY TRIBUTE
“Peace has its heroes as well as war, and in a
construction project of this magnitude, with its daily
risk, and hazard... It is only right and proper
that we should give a thought to the men who
lost their lives during the progress of the work...”
-Hon. Dr. R.J. Manion, Minister of
Railways and Canals1932, Opening of the
Welland Canal
The Welland Canal Fallen Workers Memorial will honour the 137 men who died during the construction of the Welland Ship Canal, believed to be the largest loss of life on a federal government infrastructure project in Canadian history. The youngest to die was water boy Antonio Collini, age 15; the oldest was Benjamin Kellett, age 69.
Today, the Canal carries more than 3,000 vessels each year, contributing to Canada’s economic growth and Niagara’s development.
The Welland Canal Fallen Workers Memorial Task Force is seeking community support to fulfill a promise made to honour those who tragically lost their lives while building one of the world’s greatest engineering works of the 20th century.
CREDITSCover Photo: Francis Fernley Bassett, 23 (middle) – d. April 6, 1929, crushed by locomotive crane & William Francis Bassett, 43 (left) - d. Oct. 11, 1929, crushed by bridge counterweight. Photo courtesy of Gail Fritshaw. Page Top: Lock 6 crane & gate collapse - Aug. 1, 1928. Photo courtesy of St. Catharines Museum – John Kennedy Collection, 1986.131.7. Page Left: Elzéar Lynch – d. Aug. 1, 1925, collapse of Blaw-Knox Form. Photo courtesy of of Karen Hunt. Page Right: John Lester Simmons – d. Aug. 20, 1928, struck by a cable. Photo courtesy of Janet Street.
www.stcatharines.ca/CanalWorkersMemorial
Location: Welland Canals Parkway, north of Lock 3, St. Catharines, Ontario
Timeline: To be unveiled in 2017
Fundraising Goal: $450,000
“The memorial will carry its meaning with and without words, engaging and awakening the visitor, making them think and feel more deeply through the encounter. Who were these men whose lives were cut short so that the Great Lakes could be bridged?” Dereck Revington Studio Inc., designer of the Welland Canal Fallen Workers Memorial.
A PLACE TO REMEMBER
THE MEMORIAL The site has four primary elements; the Gates of Remembrance, the Veil, the Timeline and the Lock, all within a contemplative grove. The Lock bed is set into the grass, a Timeline of fatalities from 1914 to 1932 running down its centre. A monumental Veil rests at one end: one side is blackened steel, sombre and shadowed, looking back in time to Hon. Dr. R.J. Manion’s quote: “Peace has its heroes...”; the other side is mirror-polished stainless steel, reflecting the surrounding trees. The Gates of Remembrance rise from the lock bed, like canal lock gates, a book of steel within whose pages the names of the fallen workers are cut.
Welland Canal Fallen Workers Memorial
The Veil in the grove, north view. Site Plan: Timeline & Lock
The Gates reflected in the Veil, south view.
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