As Remembrance Day approaches, we take a look at just some of the military institutions and places that helped to shape Kingston.
Kingston has long been a military town, going to back to 1673, when it was the site of Fort Frontenac, a French military fort and trading post. Kingston’s strategic location on Lake Ontario made it a key point of defence against potential invaders from the south. In 1789, the Kingston Navy Yard was established at Point Frederick at the confluence of the Cataraqui and St. Lawrence rivers. During the War of 1812, the Navy Yard was Upper Canada’s main naval station guarding against American invasion. The site was eventually incorporated into the Royal Military College grounds.
Photo caption: A guard at Fort Henry
During the War of 1812, Fort Henry was built as a key defensive fortress, to guard the Navy Yard and the waterways. The fort was used first by the British military, and then by Canadian forces, until 1891. Kingston’s four Martello Towers were built from 1846 to 1848, also as part of the defence plan for the Royal Navy dockyard and the Rideau Canal. One tower is at Fort Frederick, one in Kingston Harbour, one on Cedar Island, and one in Macdonald Park, now home to the Murney Tower Museum. Both Fort Henry and the Murney Tower Museum are popular destinations in the summer, when visitors can go back in time and explore the working and living conditions of soldiers and their families.
Photo caption: A child at Murney Tower (left), The Memorial Arch at Royal Military College commemorates former cadets who lost their lives at war (right)
The Royal Military College of Canada opened in 1876 at the site of the old Navy Yard. A degree-granting university, RMC prepares officer-cadets for careers in the military. Nearby, Canadian Forces Base Kingston, established in 1966, is home to a number of military units and formations. On its grounds is the Military Communications and Electronics Museum, which is open to visitors year-round.
Kingston is also home to a number of military and memorial sites that can be visited year-round, but that have a special significance on Remembrance Day. You can see an extensive list of these sites on the Veterans Affairs Canada website.
Photo caption: Visitors viewing exhibits inside the Military Communications and Electronics museum
Every November 11 at 11 am, Canadians across the country mark two minutes of silence to honour the lives of those who died in the line of duty. On the 11th hour of the 11th day of November 1918, armistice was declared and the Great War, now known as the First World War, was over.
This November 11, the City of Kingston hosts a bilingual service of remembrance at the Cross of Sacrifice cenotaph in Macdonald Park. The cenotaph was first erected in 1925 to honour those Kingstonians lost in the Great War.
Nearby, the National Memorial to the Fallen was recently unveiled in Macdonald Park, near the cenotaph. The memorial honours all those Canadians fallen in war time, from the 1700s to the War of 1812, through the two world wars, and in modern conflicts like the Korean War and combat missions in Afghanistan.
