London’s iconic Holy Roller will be the focus of celebrations this weekend as members of the 1st Hussars regiment, celebrating their 150th anniversary, rededicate the historic tank following a badly needed, year-long restoration.
The events, which will include a D-Day parade through the downtown core, and a rededication ceremony involving international dignitaries and a Second World War-era aircraft flyover, come days after the historic tank was returned to its longtime home in Victoria Park.
“I’m going to invite all Londoners to come on down to Victoria Park this weekend. We’re going to have a whole number of events, particularly on Saturday, but also the reconsecration of Holy Roller on Sunday at 11 a.m.,” said Bob Buchanan, who led the fundraising effort to restore the tank.
For the last year, volunteers and Fanshawe College students had been working to restore the tank to its former glory, disassembling, refurbishing, and repainting the 80-year-old war relic, which has stood guard in the downtown park since 1956.
Five years ago, members of the regiment and the city, which owns the tank, opened Holy Roller up for the first time in more than 60 years and found it to be rusting from the inside out, with the hull at risk of collapsing within the decade.
The 33-ton tank was carefully removed from the park last summer for the restorative work, which was carried out at Fanshawe’s School of Transportation Technology and Apprenticeship.
On Monday, those involved with the project were finally able to showcase their work to the public as part of a ceremony, during which the tank roared to life for the first time in decades. The following day, the tank was placed, with the help of a giant crane, atop a new pad in its usual spot at the north end of Victoria Park.
The restoration work was completed thanks to a fundraising campaign which Buchanan says met its targets with the help of community donations, and funds from the city.
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“We do have some ongoing costs, obviously, with the maintenance of Holy Roller over time. We don’t want to see it deteriorate to the condition it got to before we took this on,” he said.
The events lined up for this weekend, which will all take place in the park, include a celebration on Saturday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., complete with military bands and re-enactments, and military exhibits that organizers say “will honour our military history, showcasing vehicles that have served and still served.”
On Sunday, the downtown core will play host to a full D-Day military parade, which will begin at 10:25 a.m. at the Delta London Armouries Hotel, and end 45 minutes later at the park, with a short stop outside of City Hall in the middle.
The expected route will take the parade north on Waterloo Street to Dufferin, west to Wellington Road, north to Central Avenue, and west to the tank, according to organizers.
Following the parade, the Holy Roller will then be rededicated during a ceremony from 11 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. The ceremony, organizers say, will see several international dignitaries in attendance, and will feature remarks from, among others, retired Canadian army general Walter Natynczyk.
MP Peter Fragiskatos, Belgian diplomat Arnaud Gaspart, Lt.-Col. Christopher van dan Berg, Commanding Officer of the 1st Hussars, and CWO Colin Jenkins, Regimental Sergeant Major of the 1st Hussars, are also slated to speak.
Those in attendance, along with residents across Central London, will be treated to a celebratory flyover by the Rumbling Radials, a fleet of WWII-era Harvard aircraft, organizers say.
The events will honour both the legacy of the tank and those who served — and will mark the 150th anniversary of the 1st Hussars, the regiment which landed Holy Roller on Juno Beach, driving it across northwestern Europe through to the end of the war.
According to the regiment, the last surviving member of the tank’s original D-Day crew passed away in 2021.
“The Holy Roller represents the grit, strength and sacrifice of our service men and women. It is an honour to have this incredible artifact forever memorialized in our downtown core,” said retired Lt.-Col. Ian Haley this week when the tank returned downtown.
“We are forever grateful for the partnerships that allow us to play host to such an important piece of our collective history and we look forward to gathering to commemorate that history.”
Built in Flint, Mich., in 1942, the Holy Roller survived more than a dozen battles as it traversed terrain in France, the Netherlands, and Germany.
Several battles nearly brought the Holy Roller’s rolling to an end, but repairs managed to keep it operating through to the end of the war. The 1st Hussars chose to bring the tank home as a war trophy rather than see it scrapped.
Returning to Canada in early 1946, Holy Roller spent two years outside of the former London Armouries, and then another eight in Queen’s Park near Western Fair. It was later gifted to the city and moved to Victoria Park in 1956 where it has stood since.
— with files from Andrew Graham and Amy Simon
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