Alderville’s War Memorial
In the years following World War One, communities across Canada looked for ways to memorialize their war dead and to honour those who served. Alderville First Nation was no different: from that small Northumberland County community, 35 men volunteered to fight and nine were killed in action. The result is the striking, very symbolic monument that one cannot miss when driving along County Road 45, at Line 2. It is Canada’s first Indigenous war memorial, and was completely community-driven.
The monument stands about fifty feet high and was constructed from 468 tons of hand-mixed concrete. It is on land donated by Alderville resident William Loukes Sr. Alf McKeel, a Campbellford builder, designed it, then supplied technical advice and materials for the construction. All the labour was provided by men from Alderville. Remarkably, the monument was built in a month: sod was turned on 21 August 1927 and the finished structure was unveiled on 25 September.
The monument contains several symbolic features: the square base represents the four fundamental freedoms (speech, religion, the press, and from fear); three joined columns stand for Faith, Hope, and Charity; the three globes on top of the columns signify the Christian Holy Trinity; the cube at the very top symbolizes the Earth’s four directions. In a circle around the structure are nine large in-ground concrete blocks honouring each of Alderville’s nine soldiers killed in World War One; these blocks are connected by a 35-link chain symbolizing eternity, but also representing each of the community’s volunteers for that conflict. A bronze plaque lists the names of those who died and those who served in the 1914-18 war; a later plaque names Alderville’s war dead and volunteers in the 1939-45 World War, and its two veterans from the Viet Nam War.
The beautiful Alderville War Monument is ultimately a tribute not just to those warriors who served and died, but to the whole small Ontario First Nation community that took the initiative and built a lasting monument to them.
Don Willcock
For more information about Alderville First Nation and its War Monument, including a full list of those commemorated, go to: alderville.ca
Peterborough Museum and Archives
