What is the Canadian National Vimy Memorial?

The Canadian National Vimy Memorial stands on Hill 145, the highest point of Vimy Ridge in northern France, on land granted in perpetuity to Canada by the French government in 1922 in gratitude for Canada's role in the First World War. The memorial, designed by Toronto sculptor Walter Allward, was unveiled by King Edward VIII on July 26, 1936 before more than 50,000 Canadian and French veterans, the largest gathering of Canadian veterans ever held outside Canada.

The memorial commemorates the more than 66,000 Canadians killed in the First World War and the 11,285 Canadians whose names are inscribed on the monument because they fell in France with no known grave. The Battle of Vimy Ridge, fought from April 9 to 12, 1917, was the first time all four Canadian Corps divisions fought together. The Canadian victory captured the ridge that French and British forces had failed to take and is widely seen as the moment Canada came of age as a nation.

Allward's design uses 6,000 tonnes of Croatian limestone (Seget stone) carved into two towering pylons (representing Canada and France) and twenty allegorical figures including Mother Canada (Canada Bereft) and figures of Justice, Peace, Faith, Hope, Honour, Charity, Truth, Knowledge, and the Spirit of Sacrifice. The memorial took eleven years to build, opening in 1936 a year before the start of the Second World War.

The Vimy Ridge site of 117 hectares is preserved by Veterans Affairs Canada as a Canadian National Historic Site, with restored trenches, tunnels, and shell craters open to visitors. The site includes a Canadian Visitor and Education Centre and the cemetery of Givenchy-en-Gohelle. The memorial appears on the Canadian twenty-dollar polymer note introduced in 2012, and the Vimy Foundation supports educational programmes about the battle. The 100th anniversary of the battle, marked on April 9, 2017, drew 25,000 Canadians to the site.