Dossier f23 - YMCA - Overseas - Report on Activities

Following the Armistice, signed 11 November 1919, thus ending World War One, there was a strong feeling amongst all those connected with Queen’s University (both past and present) that some monument should be erected on the campus to memorialize the efforts of those “son’s of Queen’s” who had served during the hostilities of 1914-1919. Consequently, a notice was sent to all Alumni soliciting their suggestions as to what they thought would be an appropriate method in which to achieve this worthy endeavour. A vast majority of those who replied indicated that a Students’ Union would be the most apposite project to undertake.
Thus, a subscription was raised, but unfortunately due to circumstances and other more tangible factors, it was to be another five years before the plan was actively revived, and another two after that before construction was begun.
Upon the completion of the Students’ Memorial Union, its Warden, Lieutenant Colonel K.L. Stephenson, sent the following letter in early 1929, to the next of kin of all those who had died during WWI:
“In this Union there is a quiet room set aside as a special memorial to ex-students of Queen’s University who gave their lives for King and Empire during the Great War. The council of the Union propose to keep them in remembrance by placing their photographs on the walls of this room.”
The response was overwhelming, thanks in large part to the ferret-like work of Warden Stephenson, and his successor, Captain John Macdonald, and others, in tracking down addresses. Most of those who had died were memorialized around the four walls of the War Memorial Room, where their portraits were placed; not, it might be added, without further delay and much anxiety upon the part of those who in many instances, had given up their only extant photograph of their son, or brother, or cousin, or nephew.
As an unfortunate postscript for all concerned, a fire on 4 September 1947, destroyed the entire Union building, leaving the Memorial Room and its contents in ashes.