Hill 62 Memorial

At the end of the war, The Imperial War Graves Commission granted Canada eight sites - five in France and three in Belgium - on which to erect memorials. Each site represented a significant Canadian engagement in the war and for this reason it was originally decided that each battlefield would be treated equally and graced with identical monuments.[2] The Canadian Battlefields Memorials Commission was formed in November 1920 and decided a competition would be held to select the design of the memorial that would be used at the eight European sites.[3] In October 1922, the submission of Toronto sculptor and designer Walter Seymour Allward was selected as the winner of the competition, and the submission of Frederick Chapman Clemesha placed second. The commission decided Allward's monumental design would be used at Vimy Ridge in France as it was the most dramatic location.[4] Originally, Clemesha's 'Brooding Soldier' design was selected for the remaining sites but was later, for a number of reasons, erected only at St. Julien in Belgium. The remaining six sites at Passchendaele, and Hill 62 in Belgium and Le Quesnel, Dury, Courcelette and Bourlon Wood in France each received an essentially identical Canadian granite block memorial marker, differentiated only with brief inscriptions that describe the battle they commemorate in English and French on their sides. The blocks are situated in small parks that vary in shape and design and are typically situated on key points of the battlefield they memorialize.

The Canadian Battlefields Memorials Commission competition jury that chose Walter Allward's monument design had originally envisioned Alward's edifice being built atop Hill 62.[5] When they appeared before the committee, Parkdale M.P. Herbert Mowat and Victoria Cross recipient Cy Peck expressed a preference for a distinct memorial at the Vimy Ridge. [6][7]. Ultimately, Hill 62 received the standard 'granite block' memorial instead of Alward's towering white pylons.

Hill 62 Memorial Visitor's Book Cabinet

The Hill 62 (Sanctuary Wood) Memorial site is located just over three kilometres east of Ypres, Belgium (measured from the Menin Gate) at the end of the Canadalaan (Canada Lane) which runs south off of the N8/Meenseweg road to Menen. The memorial park is made up of a beautiful series of three terraced gardens leading up the hillside to the summit where the grey granite block monument sits in a grassed circle on a low flagstone terrace. From the hilltop, the clear and commanding view of Ieper, just over three kilometres away, clearly illustrates the strategic significance of the hilltop and thereby the importance of the Canadian Corps accomplishment in wresting it and the territories surrounding it from the German Army.