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

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

 memorial sites in France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

 and Belgium

Belgium

Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...

.

History

In February 1919, the Battle Exploits Memorials Committee, a Special Committee of the House of Commons, was formed in the United Kingdom

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 with the mandate of identifying the principal battle sites and allocating sites to appropriate countries. The Canadian representative to the committee, Brigadier General

Brigadier General

Brigadier general is a senior rank in the armed forces. It is the lowest ranking general officer in some countries, usually sitting between the ranks of colonel and major general. When appointed to a field command, a brigadier general is typically in command of a brigade consisting of around 4,000...

 Garnet Hughes

Garnet Hughes

Major General Garnet Burk Hughes CB, DSO, was a Canadian military officer during the First World War. He was the son of Sir Sam Hughes, a Canadian politician and Minister of the Militia during the war...

, applied for eight memorial sites based upon the recommendation of a collection of Canadian military officers, presided over by Canadian Corps

Canadian Corps

The Canadian Corps was a World War I corps formed from the Canadian Expeditionary Force in September 1915 after the arrival of the 2nd Canadian Division in France. The corps was expanded by the addition of the 3rd Canadian Division in December 1915 and the 4th Canadian Division in August 1916...

 commander Lieutenant General

Lieutenant General

Lieutenant General is a military rank used in many countries. The rank traces its origins to the Middle Ages where the title of Lieutenant General was held by the second in command on the battlefield, who was normally subordinate to a Captain General....

 Arthur Currie

Arthur Currie

Sir Arthur William Currie GCMG, KCB , was a Canadian general during World War I. He had the unique distinction of starting his military career on the very bottom rung as a pre-war militia gunner before rising through the ranks to become the first Canadian commander of the four divisions of the...

. 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

Canadian National Vimy Memorial

The Canadian National Vimy Memorial is a memorial site in France dedicated to the memory of Canadian Expeditionary Force members killed during the First World War. It also serves as the place of commemoration for First World War Canadian soldiers killed or presumed dead in France who have no known...

, Bourlon Wood

Bourlon Wood Memorial

The Bourlon Wood Memorial is a Canadian war memorial that commemorates the actions of the Canadian Corps during the final months of the First World War; a period also known as Canada's Hundred Days, part of the Hundred Days Offensive...

, Le Quesnel

Le Quesnel Memorial

The Le Quesnel Memorial is a Canadian war memorial that commemorates the actions of the Canadian Corps during the 1918 Battle of Amiens during World War I...

, Dury

Dury Memorial

The Dury Memorial is a World War I Canadian war memorial that commemorates the actions of the Canadian Corps in the Second Battle of Arras, particularly the their breakthrough at the Drocourt-Quéant Line switch of the Hindenburg Line just south of the town of Dury. The Drocourt-Quéant Line was a...

 and Courcelette

Courcelette Memorial

The Courcelette Memorial is a Canadian war memorial that commemorates the actions of the Canadian Corps in the final two and a half months of the infamous four and a half month long Somme Offensive of the First World War...

 in France and St. Julien

Saint Julien Memorial

The St. Julien Memorial is a Canadian war memorial and small commemorative park located in the village of Saint Julien , Belgium. The memorial commemorates the Canadian First Division's participation in the Second Battle of Ypres of World War I which included the defence against the first poison...

, Hill 62

Hill 62 Memorial

The Canadian Hill 62 Memorial is a war memorial that commemorates the actions of the Canadian Corps in defending the southern stretches of the Ypres Salient between April and August 1916 including actions in battle at the St. Eloi Craters, Hill 62, Mount Sorrel and Sanctuary Wood...

 (Sanctuary Wood), and Passchendaele

Passchendaele Memorial

The Passchendaele Memorial is a Canadian war memorial that commemorates the actions of the Canadian Corps in the Second Battle of Passchendaele of World War I...

 in Belgium." The Battle Exploits Memorials Committee also recommended that Canada hold an architectural design competition

Architectural design competition

An architectural design competition is a special type of competition in which an organization or government body that plans to build a new building asks for architects to submit a proposed design for a building. The winning design is usually chosen by an independent panel of design professionals...

, 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

Maquette

A maquette is a small scale model or rough draft of an unfinished architectural work or a sculpture...

 of their respective design. In October 1921, the commission selected the submission of Toronto

Toronto

Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...

 sculptor and designer Walter Seymour Allward as the winner of the competition, and that of Frederick Chapman Clemesha as runner-up. The complexity of Allward's design precluded the possibility of duplicating the design at each site.

The commission revised its initial plans and decided to build two distinctive memorials—that of Allward and Clemesha—and six smaller identical memorials. At the outset, members of the commission debated where to build Allward's winning design. Committee member and former Canadian Corps commander, Lieutenant-General Arthur Currie

Arthur Currie

Sir Arthur William Currie GCMG, KCB , was a Canadian general during World War I. He had the unique distinction of starting his military career on the very bottom rung as a pre-war militia gunner before rising through the ranks to become the first Canadian commander of the four divisions of the...

 argued in favour of the government placing the monument in Belgium on Hill 62

Hill 62 Memorial

The Canadian Hill 62 Memorial is a war memorial that commemorates the actions of the Canadian Corps in defending the southern stretches of the Ypres Salient between April and August 1916 including actions in battle at the St. Eloi Craters, Hill 62, Mount Sorrel and Sanctuary Wood...

. In the end, the commission selected Vimy Ridge as the preferred site, largely because of its elevation above the plain below. In the interval between the 1st and 2nd session of the 14th Canadian Parliament

14th Canadian Parliament

The 14th Canadian Parliament was in session from 8 March 1922 until 5 September 1925. The membership was set by the 1921 federal election on 6 December 1921, and it changed only somewhat due to resignations and by-elections until it was dissolved prior to the 1925 election.It was controlled by a...

, Speaker of the Canadian House of Commons

Speaker of the Canadian House of Commons

The Speaker of the House of Commons of Canada is the presiding officer of the lower house of the Parliament of Canada and is elected at the beginning of each new parliament by fellow Members of Parliament...

 and Canadian Battlefields Memorials Commission committee member Rodolphe Lemieux

Rodolphe Lemieux

Rodolphe Lemieux, PC, FRSC was a Canadian parliamentarian and long time Speaker of the Canadian House of Commons ....

 went to France to negotiate the acquisition of land on Vimy Ridge. In December 1922, Lemieux concluded an agreement with France in which France granted Canada "freely and for all time" the use of 250 acres (101.2 ha) of land on Vimy Ridge, in recognition of Canada's war effort. The only condition placed on the donation was that Canada use the land to erect a monument commemorating Canadian soldiers killed during the First World War and assume the responsibility for the maintenance of the memorial and the surrounding battlefield park.

Members

Name	Position
Major General Major General Major general or major-general is a military rank used in many countries. It is derived from the older rank of sergeant major general. A major general is a high-ranking officer, normally subordinate to the rank of lieutenant general and senior to the ranks of brigadier and brigadier general...  Sydney Chilton Mewburn Sydney Chilton Mewburn Sydney Chilton Mewburn, PC was a Canadian lawyer, soldier, and politician.Born in Hamilton, Canada West, he was the Canadian Minister of Militia and Defence from October 12, 1917 - January 15, 1920 under Sir Robert Borden's Union Government in 1917. During World War I, he was a Major General in...	Chairman
Colonel Colonel Colonel , abbreviated Col or COL, is a military rank of a senior commissioned officer. It or a corresponding rank exists in most armies and in many air forces; the naval equivalent rank is generally "Captain". It is also used in some police forces and other paramilitary rank structures...  Henry Campbell Osborne	Honourary Secretary
Rodolphe Lemieux Rodolphe Lemieux Rodolphe Lemieux, PC, FRSC was a Canadian parliamentarian and long time Speaker of the Canadian House of Commons ....	General member
Lieutenant General Lieutenant General Lieutenant General is a military rank used in many countries. The rank traces its origins to the Middle Ages where the title of Lieutenant General was held by the second in command on the battlefield, who was normally subordinate to a Captain General....  Richard Ernest William Turner Richard Ernest William Turner Lieutenant General Sir Richard Ernest William Turner VC, KCB, KCMG, DSO was a Canadian army officer during the Boer War and World War I, and a recipient of the Victoria Cross...	General member
John Gillanders Turriff John Gillanders Turriff John Gillanders Turriff was a Canadian parliamentarian.Born in Petit-Métis, Canada East, Turriff as a young man settled in Western Canada, first in Manitoba, where he established himself as a farmer, and subsequently in that part of the North-West Territories which corresponds to the modern...	General member
Lieutenant Colonel Lieutenant colonel Lieutenant colonel is a rank of commissioned officer in the armies and most marine forces and some air forces of the world, typically ranking above a major and below a colonel. The rank of lieutenant colonel is often shortened to simply "colonel" in conversation and in unofficial correspondence...  Reuben Wells Leonard Reuben Wells Leonard Lieutenant-Colonel Reuben Wells Leonard was a soldier, civil engineer, railroad and mining executive, and philanthropist.-Education:Following a short stint as a teacher in Brant County, he studied civil engineering at the Royal Military College of Canada in Kingston, Ontario, student # 87...	General member
Percy Erskine Nobbs Percy Erskine Nobbs Percy Erskine Nobbs was a Canadian architect who was born in Haddington, Scotland and trained in the United Kingdom. He spent most of his career in the Montreal area...	Architectural Adviser