HISTORY'S ROSS FAIR AND STUDENTS COMPLETE TORONTO CHURCHES GREAT WAR MEMORIAL PROJECT

November 01, 2023

Memorial Plaque, St. John’s Medical Mission, St. John the Evangelist (Garrison Church), Portland and Wellington Streets, (demolished), 1922. Toronto Public Library, Toronto Star Photograph Archive, TSPA_0110903F.

Created by Dr. Ross Fair in 2014, the “Toronto Church Memorials to Soldiers of the Great War Project” completed its work this year after cataloguing 353 memorials that honour soldiers from the conflict in 135 churches, and then uploading the information to the Canadian Military Memorials Database (external link) at Veterans Affairs Canada. Hired and supervised by Dr. Fair, seven History students conducted the work between 2014 and 2023 with funding from the Department of History: Ryan Hogan (BA ’14), Anna Gutkowska (BA ’16; MPI ’23), Teresa Wong (BA ’17), Sarah Jane Irvine (BA ’19), Brent Main (BA ’19), Amanda Hooper (BA ’20), and Kathryn Carson (BA ’23).

The memorials project provided valuable experience in developing the students’ skills in archival research and in constructing and using a research database. Anna Gutkowska “found the project incredibly engaging,” noting that “I am grateful for the opportunity to have been a part of this remarkable project. It played a significant role in refining my research skills and laying a strong foundation for my future academic and professional pursuits.” Likewise, Amanda Hooper recalls, “it was a fantastic opportunity to build my confidence with archival research,” noting that she learned how to “organize primary research across multiple databases” as well as “how to manage my time wisely between my responsibilities as a student and a research assistant. These skills, and the confidence I’ve gained from them, have been directly transferable to my time as a graduate student.” Katie Carson found her work on the project to be “an incredible learning opportunity on multiple fronts. Firstly, working with Veterans Affairs showed the importance of history and historical research to areas I wouldn’t have expected, and demonstrated the diversity of areas where I can apply what I’ve learned in my degree. Secondly, this work showed the ongoing relevance of this history, and the important role of this project in preserving knowledge and access to these memorials.”

By compiling information from denominational archives, congregational histories, digitized newspapers, and other historical records, the students identified memorials that either existed in Toronto churches that have been repurposed or demolished or in churches that remain active today. Examples of the project’s contributions to the Canadian Military Memorials Database include: a choir stall (external link) in St. Alban’s Cathedral (now the chapel at Royal St. George’s College); a brass plaque (external link) at Broadway Methodist Tabernacle (demolished), and a stained-glass window (external link) at Parkdale Methodist Church (demolished). Following the Canadian Military Memorials Database’s receipt of the project’s final file, Priscilla Giroux, Program Officer, Commemoration Division at Veterans Affairs Canada, offered sincere thanks to the students for their work and contributions to Veterans Affairs’ efforts to collect and present information about military memorials and monuments located in communities across Canada.

For more information, see Dr. Fair’s article about the project in Active History (external link) (March 2020).