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 […]
Finding new things to say about “In Flanders Fields” is tricky. Most Canadians can recite a line or two. Many know the whole poem off by heart; maybe pausing to ponder did the poppies “blow” or “grow.” (The answer is “blow” in the first line; “grow” in the last verse.) […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]