1928: Memorial Gates Dedicated
“These are they who went forth from
this University to the Great War and gave their lives that we might live in
freedom.” These are the words engraved on the stone
tablet above the names of the students and faculty who died in the War of
1914-1918. On 3 May 1928, a “brief and
simple” ceremony dedicated the Memorial Gates at the entrance to the
University.
The scene is set by the reporter of The
Daily Star: “The quiet words died away out of the silence that
followed there arose the funeral notes of a bugle - sounding the Last
Post. A stray cloud veiled the
sun. The music ceased. And over bowed heads of those assembled there,
time paused a moment - and the dead were remembered.”1 President
Murray read the first name engraved on the tablet, paused briefly and read the
next, until all 67 names had been read.
Designed by the original university architect, David R, Brown of Montreal,
the memorial consisted of two large gates and two small gates flanking a
central tablet. Cost of the
construction was raised through an alumni fund drive.
Images | |
1928a: Memorial Gates–Architectural Sketch. Photograph Collection, B-26.
1928b: Memorial Gates–Dedication, 1928. Photograph Collection, A-534.
1928c: Memorial Gates–Dedication, 1928. Photograph Collection, A-532.
1928d: Memorial Service Programme, 1928.
Sources | |
1. The Saskatoon Daily Star,
4 May 1928.
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