Dedication of Battle of the Atlantic Memorial Garden

[Mainz]

New Naval Monument to Honour Those Lost
in The Battle of the Atlantic

The Officers and Crew of London’s Naval Division, HMCS Prevost, The Naval Officers Association of Canada, London Branch, and the Royal Canadian Naval Association, London Branch announce the dedication of the Battle of the Atlantic Memorial Garden.
The dedication will take place during the Battle of the Atlantic Ceremony on Sunday, 2 May 2010 beginning at 1:00 p.m. at HMCS Prevost in London, Ontario.
The Battle of the Atlantic Memorial Garden will be registered as a Canadian Military Memorial, and will be open to the public. It will be a stunning and moving memorial, created with extreme gratitude, for those who made the supreme sacrifice and whose final resting places cannot be marked by graves.
The memorial garden will be built into the grass hillside at HMCS Prevost. The grass will eventually be removed, and replaced with a 'sea' of creeping blue phlox. This is a ground cover which blooms a brilliant blue from early spring through mid summer. Across this garden, from west to east, will be a 'convoy' of 25 blue granite stones. Each stone will be engraved with the name of a Royal Canadian Navy ship which was lost during the Battle of the Atlantic. The date that each ship was lost will also be engraved on the stone. There will be a stone honouring the sacrifice of the Merchant Navy. These stones will be strategically placed according to the date of their sinking. Walking at the base of the hillside you will begin with the HMCS Fraser in June of 1940 and end with the HMCS Esquimalt in April of 1945.
I am attaching images of the hillside as it is now, still covered with grass, and wooden stakes marking the future location of each stone. We are waiting anxiously for the weather to clear and the ground to dry, so that installation may continue. The stones will be in place for dedication during the Battle of the Atlantic Ceremony.
We anticipate a dignitary filled dedication of the garden during the ceremony in May. This is a great way to celebrate the Canadian Navy Centennial year of 2010.

-30-
Note: News Directors/Editors:  For further information please contact:
Naval Cadet David Lewis, HMCS Prevost Public Affairs Representative at (519) 660-5296 [email protected]

 

[Snakedoc]

Looks great, I look forward to seeing pictures of the final product!

 

[Mainz]

Lots of emails with lots of questions.

I quickly put up a webpage with up to date details.

Check out at

http://www.boamemorialgarden.com/

 

[Edward Campbell]

A reminder of the event which will happen this coming Sunday:

BZ to NOAC London and HMCS Prevost for this timely initiative.

I will attend; so will at least one other Navy.ca member - MARS. I hope some other members will attend, too.

 

[Edward Campbell]

Some of us, members of Milnet.ca, were involved in this project in one way or another. This report is reproduced under the Fair Dealing provisions (§29) of the Copyright Act from The Maple Leaf:

http://www.forces.gc.ca/site/commun/ml-fe/article-eng.asp?id=6579

HMCS Prevost ‘hallowed ground’

by N/Cdt David Lewis

“Is there a stone for HMCS Valleyfield?”

The voice startled me. I was looking down the hill at the new memorial and hadn’t seen the elderly gentleman approach. The Legion blazer he wore draped his fragile frame. From our vantage point, we could see the backs of the 24 blue granite stones dedicated to Royal Canadian Navy ships lost in the Battle of the Atlantic.

I indicated which stone was the HMCS Valleyfield memorial, and assisted him down the grassy slope.He carefully examined the stone. Below the engraved image, it reads, “HMCS Valleyfield (K329) 7 May 1944”.After a few pensive moments, he reached out and gently touched the stone.

“The date is right,” he said. “It’s the day my brother died.”

The Battle of the Atlantic Memorial was dedicated May 2 at HMCS Prevost in London, Ont. It consists of a series of quarter-tonne stones, each engraved with an individual ship’s name, which form a timeline along a 200-metre hillside. They are placed according to the date when the ships were lost at sea. There are 25 stones in total; one of them is dedicated to lost Merchant Navy ships.

The emotional effects of this memorial were evident even before the stones were placed on their permanent mounts. While the hillside was being prepared, the stones rested on wooden pallets on the drill deck at HMCS Prevost. Unannounced, there would be teary-eyed people searching out individual stones.

One such request was for the HMCS Regina stone. In a shaky voice, a man recounted his story. During the war, he was a young able seaman in HMCS Regina. Because of dental issues, he left the ship in Halifax with orders to rejoin the ship’s company a few days later in St. John’s. When he arrived in St. John’s, he learned that the ship had departed earlier than expected. A short time later, Regina was torpedoed and sunk by German submarine U-667.

With difficulty, the man leaned over far enough to gently touch the stone, paying his respects to those shipmates.

The stories continued.
Two elderly sisters had a granddaughter drive them to the dedication so they could touch the HMCS Athabaskan stone in memory of the 17-year-old brother they lost in 1944.

HMCS Louisburg’s CO, Lieutenant- Commander William Franklin Campbell, was one of many lost when the ship was torpedoed February 6, 1943. His grandson,Commander Frank Campbell, flew from Bahrain to dedicate and touch the Louisburg stone.

The local veteran who was tossed into the oily sea when HMCS Weyburn was hit in 1943 was thrilled to learn about the memorial. He died a week before its dedication.He never touched the stone, but the stone touched him.

During the dedication ceremony, the words of Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address came to mind: “...we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground.The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here have consecrated it far above our poor power to add or detract.”

I’m not sure what constitutes “hallowed ground”. I do know that these stones represent thousands of young Canadians. I do know that this grassy hillside at HMCS Prevost has been changed forever.

N/Cdt Lewis was a student on the Reserve Basic Public Affairs Officer Course when he wrote this.

This is a worthy project and we thank The Captain and Ship's Company of HMCS Prevost and the London Branch of the Naval Officers' Association of Canada for their efforts. It is much appreciated.

 

[mariomike]

This is a worthy project and we thank The Captain and Ship's Company of HMCS Prevost and the London Branch of the Naval Officers' Association of Canada for their efforts. It is much appreciated.

It certainly is.  The Naval Hymn came to mind when I read the story and saw the photos:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bnm-4kSLKdI
( I could not find a Canadian version. )

 

[Edward Campbell]

There is rather a lot of appropriate music. For me, the first that comes to mind are anthems based on Psalm 107 (They that go down to the sea in ships ...). Of these Purcell's is, doubtless, the best known but I prefer Herbert Sumsion's modern anthem; perhaps its only because I can restrain my enthusiasm for the whole baroque thing.


Edit: spelling   :-[

 

[Snakedoc]

Great article by SLt Lewis and excellent project by HMCS Prevost and all those involved!

 

[Stoker]

Quite a fitting tribute to the ships and men lost.

 

[Kat Stevens]

Nice work, very nice story.  Now pack it all up and move it to Ottawa.







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