Kingston,Ont. is a city filled with Remembrance Day symbols

With Remembrance Day just a day away, Kingston continues to hold a reputation of being a city filled with symbols to remember those who paid the ultimate sacrifice.

Whether it’s Royal Military College’s Memorial Arch or Kingston City Hall’s Memorial Hall and its stained glass windows, those symbols are everywhere.

“Symbols, I think, remind people in a very, very easy way … and we come back to that word, ‘remember,'” said Peter Gower, a local historian and author.

Another historic symbol is the 21st Battalion monument located in City Park that was erected 90 years ago.

“I have no idea who the sculptor was, and in all honesty I have no idea of what the intent of what the statue is either,” Gower said.

“Has he just been shot? Is he throwing up his hands in ‘hooray’ because of the armistice? No idea, no idea at all.

“There is not another one like it in Canada. There are a number of books that look at all of the memorials in the country and this one is picked as being unique.”

The Memorial Wall at the Kingston Memorial Centre is actually one of the most recent recognition of lives lost.

“There were 1,022 originally and I think it’s about 18 that have been added, so we’re close 1,040,” said Gower.

That includes both men and women who died serving their country ranging from the Boar War to the war in Afghanistan.

“It’s a memorial that you can go right up to, you can touch. We will find people particularly around this time of year looking at it, looking for names, looking for perhaps for their family names or a family member in a lot of cases — touching, tracing the engraving, putting poppies close to the names,” Gower said.