09/04/2026
The Canadian National Vimy Memorial is one of the most powerful war memorials in the world and one of the most significant places in Canadian history. It stands on Hill 145, the highest point of Vimy Ridge and the last German position to fall during the battle of April 9-12 1917, captured on April 12 by the 85th Nova Scotia Highlanders in an attack without a preliminary artillery barrage. The memorial was designed by Walter Seymour Allward, a Toronto sculptor who won the competition to design it in 1921. Allward spent three years developing the concept and eight years overseeing the construction, which required blasting 11,000 tonnes of concrete into the ridge and importing 6,000 tonnes of Croatian limestone, chosen for its ability to be carved in fine detail and for its expected durability over centuries. The construction workforce was entirely civilian, mostly unemployed veterans who were housed in a purpose-built village on the ridge. The memorial was unveiled on July 26 1936 by King Edward VIII in a ceremony that brought 100,000 pilgrims from Canada, Britain, France, and Belgium and was one of the largest gatherings of people in France in the interwar period. The completed memorial is unlike any other on the Western Front. Two soaring pylons, each 27 metres tall, rise from a broad horizontal base. One pylon represents Canada, the other France. The pylons are carved with figures representing justice, peace, honour, fraternity, charity, truth, knowledge, and hope. The base carries the names of 11,285 Canadian soldiers who were killed in France during the First World War and have no known grave. The space between the pylons frames the view across the Douai Plain below, toward the direction from which the Canadians attacked.
