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 schools
21 posts
I think it caught people’s attention, and maybe made them think about Remembrance Day just a little bit longer. Claire Franceschetti commenting on her Remembrance Day project They had lived down the street, around the corner, or maybe right next door. They were young Humbersiders who went off to two […]
For some years, this “Greetings from Humberside” poster hung over the fireplace of a steak house in Sydney, Nova Scotia. Attractive, colourful, and no doubt at times a conversation piece, it was a long way from home. Humberside Collegiate Institute is about 1,500 kilometres (950 miles) from Sydney. What was […]
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 […]
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 […]
W. John Maize, a member of Parkdale CI Alumni Association, and former Head of History at the school, responded to our November 11, 2015 blog post Vimy Cross fragment brought home for a Parkdale boy. “I was fascinated to see the photo of the Jones family stone and to read […]
Back in March, we wrote about three “vanished” schools and invited contributions of photos or reminiscences. Thanks to two blog readers, we add a few details to the story of Grand Avenue School, in Humber Bay, Etobicoke. Kjell Nordenson attended Grand Avenue School in the 1960s. He didn’t have a […]
Mark a stone, but let me lie With my fellows who fought and died With me on Vimy Ridge Parkdale’s Roy Victor Jones was one of some 3,600 Canadians who died at Vimy Ridge. A wooden cross marked the spot where he fell on April 9, 1917. Roy’s parents had […]
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 […]
The year 2014 began with the promise of much remembering. One hundred years since the outbreak of the Great War; 70 years since D-day in the Second World War. Princess Anne would re-dedicate Canada’s national war memorial in Ottawa, 75 years after her grandfather, King George VI, first unveiled it […]