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 […]
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 […]
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 […]