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Articles

Vol. 10 (2018)

Conflicting Commemotations: The Saint John war memorial and the Women's Christian Temperance Union fountain, 1922–1925

Submitted
November 21, 2018
Published
2018-11-01

Abstract

This article explores the construction of the war memorial in Saint John, New Brunswick. There was intense debate surrounding the location of the memorial because many in the community wanted to remove the Women’s Christian Temperance Union’s fountain, which had been built to honour the Loyalist women who founded the city. Some prominent Saint John citizens, including the mayor, thought that removing the fountain would be erasing that “sacred” memory. This debate reveals that even though the country was in the wake of a deadly global conflict, local memories and identities held strong.