“To represent powerful women on the field.” Ayesha Hossain, student at George Webster school, explains her prize-winning poster. Ayesha’s artwork honours all women who served in military conflicts—but particularly nursing sisters of the Great War—with a special nod to one who died on active service. The text to the right […]
Elementary schools
13 posts
Our 2018 fall collection consists of four memorials from three Lakeshore communities of Etobicoke. The southwest boundary of Etobicoke sits along the north shore of Lake Ontario. A few miles east of “the Lakeshore,” concrete roadways and condo canyons hide the lake, except for occasional glimpses. Mimico, New Toronto, and […]
Toronto neighbourhoods offered both surprises and traditional memorials as we organized 1,508 new names for “back to school” 2017. A happy surprise was solving the puzzle of an unidentified WWI plaque displayed in a local café. The long-forgotten Aura Lee Club, a social and sports group active from 1887 to […]
In November 2016, we added Coleman Avenue School to For King and Country. Except for brief mentions in old issues of the Toronto Daily Star and The Globe, information about the “vanished” school was hard to find. Fortunately, former student Donna Adams-Hannigan offered to share her clear memories of Coleman: […]
For King and Country began as a simple project to make available the names of all Toronto students who had served in any war. Our first school “histories” were sketchy outlines only: opening date; name changes; anniversaries or reunions; sometimes a closing date. A pleasant surprise once the project got […]
We start 2015 with three “vanished” schools. The bricks and mortar of Grand Avenue, Humber Bay, and Silverthorn schools have gone, but their war memorials survive to remind us of students who volunteered for king and country. A fourth school, Fairbank Memorial, rounds out our group. In April 2014, an […]
Wellesley Public School, closed in 1956, lingers in the memory of former students, who have responded to our blog post (Vanished School and Vanished Times-March 17, 2013). When the students moved to Church Street School, Wellesley’s bell went with them. Its ringing days long past, the bell sits in a […]
Leslieville (Leslie Street) school will celebrate 150 years on April 26. The school’s first principal was Alexander Muir, composer of “The Maple Leaf Forever.” The school’s war memorials (485 names) have been indexed and a photo is on our website. Congratulations to this east-of-the-Don school and to a neighbourhood packed […]
A great uncle’s school certificate sparked a search for one of Toronto’s “vanished” halls of learning. Opened in 1874, Wellesley Public School sat like a fancy wedding cake on the north east corner of Bay and Wellesley Streets in downtown Toronto. The “most handsome and best-furnished school building in Toronto” […]
This plaque hangs in Rose Avenue School, 675 Ontario Street, (south of Bloor Street East, between Parliament and Sherbourne Streets) in Toronto’s St. James Town. Chilton Street does not appear on current maps of Toronto. There is a Chilton Road in East York, but it is several kilometres northeast of […]