Remembrance Day
Remembrance Day, Victory Square, 1932. CoV Archives: CVA 99-2691
November 11 is Remembrance Day, and several ceremonies will be taking place around Vancouver. The main event will take place at Victory Square (at Hastings and Hamilton) starting at 9:45am.
The significance of this space as a place of remembrance is poignant. At one time, the city’s first courthouse was located on the site and it was known as Government Square. Men volunteering to go overseas would enlist at tables set up at the foot of the courthouse steps – approximately where the present-day cenotaph is located.
The 30′ cenotaph was unveiled by Mayor William Owen in 1924. It was designed by Major G.L. Thornton Sharp, an architect, planner and park commissioner.
The City of Vancouver’s notice for the Remembrance Day ceremonies is as follows:
The Remembrance Day Ceremony and Parade will begin on Wednesday, November 11 at 9:45am at the Victory Square Cenotaph at West Hastings Street and Cambie Street.
Ceremony program
The program begins with a performance by the Vancouver Bach Youth Choir and Sarabande starting at 9:45am.
At 10:00am veterans, military marching units and bands will be led to Victory Square by the Vancouver Flag Party. The cenotaph ceremony starts at 10:30am.
At 11:00 am the Last Post will be sounded. There will be Two Minutes of Silence, during which a 21-gun salute by the 15th Field Artillery Regiment will be heard from Portside Park. Rouse and Lament will follow. The RCAF will conduct a fly-past moments later, weather permitting. The enduring In Flanders Fields will then be sung by the Bach Youth Choir and Sarabande and wreaths will be placed at the Cenotaph.
A feature will be a combined performance by the Vancouver Fire and Rescue Service and the Regimental Pipes and Drums of the Seaforth Highlanders of Canada.
Parade route
The main parade will march Route 2, marching west along Hastings past the reviewing stand between Homer and Richards, turning right at Richards, east on Cordova, then south on Cambie.
The veterans section of the parade will march Route 1, marching west along Hastings Street past the reviewing stand and disperse.
Other Events
Memorial South Park Cenotaph
41st Avenue and Windsor Street10:30am Japanese Canadian War Memorial in Stanley Park 10:40am Grandview Park
1657 Charles Street at Commercial Drive10:45am Royal Vancouver Yacht Club
3811 Point Grey Road
(can be viewed from Hastings Mill Park)10:55am CRAB Park at Portside 10:55am Chinatown Memorial
Keefer at Columbia streets12:30pm