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For King and Country

A project to transcribe the war memorials in Toronto schools
  • Toronto District School Board
    • Elementary Schools: A to C
    • Elementary Schools: D to F
    • Elementary Schools: G to J
    • Elementary Schools: K to M
    • Elementary Schools: N to R
    • Elementary Schools: S to Z
    • Secondary Schools: A to F
    • Secondary Schools: G to M
    • Secondary Schools: N to Z
  • Roman Catholic Schools
  • Independent Schools
  • Colleges and Universities
  • Other Organizations
  • SEARCH THE NAMES DATABASE

For King and Country

A project to transcribe the war memorials in Toronto schools
  • Search
  • Toronto District School Board
    • Elementary Schools: A to C
    • Elementary Schools: D to F
    • Elementary Schools: G to J
    • Elementary Schools: K to M
    • Elementary Schools: N to R
    • Elementary Schools: S to Z
    • Secondary Schools: A to F
    • Secondary Schools: G to M
    • Secondary Schools: N to Z
  • Roman Catholic Schools
  • Independent Schools
  • Colleges and Universities
  • Other Organizations
  • SEARCH THE NAMES DATABASE

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 […]

Memorials: Some safe, and some at risk

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: […]

A Student Remembers Coleman Avenue School

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 […]

Good schools—and good neighbourhoods

Death notice for George Renfrew

An enduring mystery at an east end Toronto café is the memorial shown here. Names on a bronze plaque with dates (1914-1918) indicate a tribute to those who died in the Great War. The inscription reads: Our comrades / Who / Sixty-three in all / “Played the game” / Even […]

A Memorial Mystery—Solved.

Harry and Willard Pell

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 […]

Stories of Vimy—and Parkdale boys…

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 […]

A “Vanished” School Reappears

Thank you Veterans of Canada -sidewalk message in front of Old City Hall cenotaph Toronto District School Board joined the many groups laying wreaths at Old City Hall’s cenotaph ceremony this November 11th. Hours after the crowd had gone, people lingered to “plant” their poppies, take photographs, and read the […]

Lest We Forget

Detail of cross fragment.

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 […]

Vimy Cross fragment brought home for a Parkdale boy

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 […]

A Fresh Look at Four Old Schools

Paving stone shaped like a poppy and painted red beside a concrete bench decorated with poppies

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 […]

Remembering in 2014

AN ONGOING PROJECT OF THE ONTARIO GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY, TORONTO BRANCH

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Memorial Locations

  • Toronto District School Board
    • Elementary Schools: A to C
    • Elementary Schools: D to F
    • Elementary Schools: G to J
    • Elementary Schools: K to M
    • Elementary Schools: N to R
    • Elementary Schools: S to Z
    • Secondary Schools: A to F
    • Secondary Schools: G to M
    • Secondary Schools: N to Z
  • Roman Catholic Schools
  • Independent Schools
  • Colleges and Universities
  • Other Organizations
  • SEARCH THE NAMES DATABASE

What’s in the database right now?

Number of schools: 121
Other organizations: 4
Names on memorials: 49,143
Latest additions:
His Majesty’s Imperial Army & Navy Veterans Association
Harbord Collegiate Institute

King & Country blog: recent posts

  • Remembrance Month 2023: Old City Hall’s memorials honour ordinary Toronto citizens
  • Harbord’s many musical gifts to 1930s Toronto
  • School for an Immigrant Neighbourhood: Harbord Collegiate’s happy ghosts
  • Years of Remembrance at Toronto City Hall
  • Royal Canadian Legion’s Remembrance Day Poster Contest, 2021
  • University of Toronto Centres for Roman Catholic Students
  • Memorials Moved but Remembered: Etobicoke’s Lakeshore Communities

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