THUNDER BAY — A local group is raising money for a new memorial to recognize the volunteers who joined the Canadian Expeditionary Force over a century ago to fight in the First World War.
The Senate of the Lake Superior Scottish Regiment, an advisory body, has already collected about three-quarters of the $100,000 goal.
The monument will be erected this summer on city parkland on the west side of North Cumberland Street, between Gibson Avenue and the Current River.
According to the organizers, the 52nd Infantry (or New Ontario) Battalion went overseas with about 1,000 officers and men, but suffered so many casualties in the course of the war that by 1918 more than 4,000 troops had passed through its ranks.
Members of the battalion were awarded 13 battle honours and 380 personal awards including one Victoria Cross.
By war's end, about 800 of them had been buried in French or Belgian cemeteries.
Their names will be inscribed in granite at the new memorial.
Tim Groulx, who speaks for the LSSR Senate, said the New Ontario Battalion was the only First World War unit raised in northwestern Ontario which fought in Europe as a unit and came back as a unit.
Many other residents of the region served in other parts of the military.
Groulx said "the way records were kept, there's no way we can consolidate a list of all the volunteers from northwestern Ontario. The bookkeeping wasn't kept that way. The only tool that we have to remind people what those guys went through to keep us free...is the 52nd Battalion, so they are the representative unit of all the people who went overseas."
Before the unit's members went overseas, they trained at the site where the monument is going to be placed, now known as Current River Park.
"That's where the battalion came together, that's where they formed up for basic training," Groulx said.
In choosing a site, the organizers didn't want to detract from the existing war memorials in Thunder Bay.
Groulx said they feel the location they've selected will allow for peaceful contemplation of the new monument and what it represents.
"It's going to be tucked in behind. It's going to be quiet and private...the Thunder Bay Horticultural Society has offered to plant and maintain a poppy garden for us. You can sit on the picnic benches and have your lunch or read a book...and visit" the memorial, he said.
A dedication ceremony is expected to be held in September.
