Located in a small piece land in the centre of Provencher Boulevard south of the Belgian Club, this monument features the likenesses of two soldiers, one standing over a fallen comrade.
Initiated by members of the nearby Belgian Club, the monument was the work of Winnipeg sculptor Hubert A. Garnier. The two figures were modeled by local residents Jules Julien De Cruyenaere (c1894-1980), the fallen soldier, and Julien Buysse (1897-1981), the standing soldier. They were sculpted out of Haddington Island stone donated by McDonald Quarries of Victoria, British Columbia and completed at the Charles Gillis Quarries in Winnipeg. The base on which the monument stands is eight feet deep and contains five truckloads of granite from old CNR bridge piers that were demolished around this time.
The monument was unveiled officially on 1 October 1938 at a ceremony attended by Reverend Father Damas of the Order of Belgian Capuchin Fathers, Baron Silvercruys, then Belgian Ambassador in Ottawa, Arthur Dejardin, then Belgian Consul in Winnipeg, Mayor George Campbell MacLean, and committee chair Louis Joseph De Nobele. A commemorative plaque featured text in three languages, with English text facing west toward Winnipeg, French text facing south toward St. Boniface, and Flemish text facing north toward the Belgian Club.
Following the Second World War, the old plaque accompanying the monument was replaced by a new one dedicated to the memorial of fallen Belgian soldiers who had served with Allied forces in both world wars. The monument was restored and rededicated in September 1995 and again in the summer of 2022. It is a municipally-designated historic site.
Belgian Veterans Association Historical War Memorial (May 2018)
Source: George Penner
Sculptor Hubert Garnier works on his figure of a fallen soldier for the Belgian War Memorial (circa 1938)
Source: Jennifer DoyleSite Coordinates (lat/long): N49.89488, W97.11127
denoted by symbol on the map above
See also:
Memorable Manitobans: Hubert A. Garnier (1903-1987)
Memorable Manitobans: Alfred Arthur De Cruyenaere (1893-1981)
Historic Sites of Manitoba: Belgian Club Building (407 Provencher Boulevard, Winnipeg)
MHS Centennial Organization: Le Club Belge
Historic Sites of Manitoba: Municipally Designated Historic Sites
Obituary [Jules Julien De Cruyenaere], Winnipeg Free Press, 24 June 1980, page 62.
Belgian War Memorial, City of Winnipeg Historical Buildings Committee, January 1995.
Information for this page was provided by The City of Winnipeg’s Planning, Property and Development Department, which acknowledges the contribution of the Government of Manitoba through its Heritage Grants Program.
Obituaries and burial transcriptions, Manitoba Genealogical Society.
We thank Jennifer Doyle for providing a photograph of sculptor Hubert A. Garnier used here, and George Penner for providing a photograph of the monument.
This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough and Neil Pryce.
Page revised: 11 November 2024
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