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The Oak Bay BC War Memorial

Oak Bay Memorial

There is a beautiful war memorial in a beautiful location near Cattle Point in Oak Bay BC. There is a standing female figure looking down, her arms embracing the ninety-seven names of Oak Bay's 1939-1945 war dead. The inscription reads: "Roll of Honour" "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." A location at Uplands Park was chosen in a particularly beautiful spot overlooking the ocean. It was unveiled Armistice Day, November 11, 1948 by Lieutenant-Governor Charles Banks. It seems likely that the monument itself was designed by Architect Frank Ifor Moran (1878-1955). James Saull, a former member of the RAF, who made his home in Victoria after the war, was chosen to create the sculpture of a female figure which is the main focal point. Using his wife as the model, Saull created the sculpture in concrete. James Edward Saull was born in London England 21 August 1913 and died in Victoria BC 07 May 2002. He was a student of Emanuel Hahn, one of Canada's preeminent Great War memorial sculptors. Due to weather damage and exposure to ocean air, it had to be rebuilt and repaired in 1980. It wasn't possible to update the list so in 2004, bronze plaques honouring those lost in World War One, Korea, as well as United Nations Peace Keepers and the Canadian Merchant Navy were installed on rocks in front of the memorial. Rememberance Day ceremonies are held there annually and well attended by the community.

Nauticapedia

Site News: February 12, 2025

ANOTHER MILESTONE REACHED

The vessel database has been updated and is now holding 95,146 vessel histories (with 16,409 images and 14,064 records of ship wrecks and marine disasters).

The mariner and naval biography database has also been updated and now contains 58,599 entries (with 4000 images).

My thanks to Ray Warren who is beginning a long process of filling gaps in the photo record of the vessel histories in the vessel database. Ray has been documenting the ships of Vancouver Harbour for more than 60 years.

Thanks to contributor Mike Rydqvist McCammon for the hundreds of photos he continues to contribute to illustrate British Columbia’s floating heritage.

My very special thanks to our volunteer IT adviser, John Eyre, who (since 2021) has modernized, simplified and improved the update process for the databases into semi–automated processes. His participation has been vital to keeping the Nauticapedia available to our netizens.

Thanks to John Spivey who is beginning his 4th year of fact checking all of the entries in the vessel database.

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