There are seventy-six First World War, eighty four Second World War and one Korean War name inscribed on the Town of Arnprior’s cenotaph.
Before 1952, there had been only a wooden pillar without any inscribed names.
At this point the Arnprior Branch of the Canadian Legion formed a Cenotaph Committee which set out to collect the names and necessary funding, and to also secure its location by the hospital.
The inscriptions were a source of fascination for Arnprior and McNab-Braeside Archives (AMBA) volunteer Rod McCallum, who wanted to know more.
The cenotaph was finished just in time for Remembrance Day on 11 November 1952, and was later altered and restored in 1998.
The AMBA initiative, completed this year, is a digitized tribute to the community’s fallen.
Completed in 2021, the Arnprior Cenotaph Special Research Project aimed to collect all of the names of those inscribed on the cenotaph, honour rolls and other local memorials.
McCallum says that, as with the original collection of names in 1952, the verification of names and correction of errors was the hardest part of the job.
You can learn more about the project by visiting the War Memorial page on the AMBA website or by contacting the Archives.
