Canadian Battlefields Memorials Commission

The Canadian Battlefields Memorials Commission was a special commission established by the House of Commons of Canada, on the recommendations of the British Battle Exploits Memorials Committee. The Canadian House of Commons established the committee in September 1920 with the mandate of selecting and establishing First World War memorial sites in France and Belgium. History In February 1919, the Battle Exploits Memorials Committee, a Special Committee of the House of Commons, was formed in the United Kingdom with the mandate of identifying the principal battle sites and allocating sites to appropriate countries. The Canadian representative to the committee, Brigadier General Garnet Hughes, applied for eight memorial sites based upon the recommendation of a collection of Canadian military officers, presided over by Canadian Corps commander Lieutenant General Arthur Currie. In April 1920, the Battle Exploits Memorials Committee announced that it had been awarded eight sites—five in France and three in Belgium—on which to erect memorials. The committee recommended that memorials be erected at "Vimy, Bourlon Wood, Le Quesnel, Dury and Courcelette in France and St. Julien, Hill 62 (Sanctuary Wood), and Passchendaele in Belgium." The Battle Exploits Memorials Committee also recommended that Canada hold an architectural design competition, open to all Canadian architects, designers, sculptors and other artists, to determine the design or designs to be adopted. The committee also suggested that a temporary honorary commission be established to hold the design competition, select the designs and undertake the contractual work. In September 1920, the Canadian government formed the Canadian Battlefields Memorials Commission to discuss the process and conditions for holding a memorial competition for the sites in Europe, as suggested by the Battle Exploits Memorials Committee. The commission held its first meeting on 26 November 1920 and during this meeting reaffirmed the principle of a design competition open to all Canadian architects, designers, sculptors and artists. Interested parties submitted 160 design drawings and the jury selected 17 submissions for consideration, commissioning each finalist to produce a plaster maquette of their respective design. In October 1921, the commission selected the submission of Toronto sculptor and designer Walter Seymour Allward as the winner of the competition, and that of Frederick Chapman Clemesha as runner-up.