| Twillingate, Newfoundland Constructed in
memory of those who served in the two Great Wars
and the Korean conflict.
The first War Memorial in Twillingate was the
original Notre Dame Bay Memorial Hospital.
Movement for construction of the hospital began
at a public meeting held at the Court House in
Twillingate in 1918 as World War I was coming to
an end. Many men from Notre Dame Bay had lost
their lives in the war and, besides fulfilling
the great need for medical facilities, the
hospital would also serve as a memorial to those
gallant young men.
Construction got under way in June, 1921, on
the south side of Twillingate Harbour and the
hospital was officially opened by Governor W.L
Allardyce on September 20, 1924. Over the next 52
years, the hospital served thousands of people,
not only from the immediate area, but also from
other areas of Newfoundland.
In 1976, it was replaced by an ultra-modern
facility which is also known as the Notre Dame
Bay Memorial Hospital.
After the old hospital was dismantled in 1981,
Twillingate Branch 21 of the Royal Canadian
Legion spearheaded a drive to have a War Memorial
erected on the same site. This drive received
wide-spread community support, the new memorial
became a reality, and was unveiled on Memorial
Day, July 1, 1985, by the late Comrade Edgar Dove,
a veteran of WWI and Comrade Alfred Jenkins, a
veteran of WWII.
Branch 21 has recently been instrumental in
having the cornerstone from the old hospital set
up on the new War Memorial site adjacent to the
Memorial, and in having a plaque from the old
hospital, placed in one of the wards at the
new hospital which designated ward 9 as the Veteran's ward.
Hung in the waiting room of the old hospital, was
a framed list of names with the heading:
In Memory of
the Men from the old Electoral Districts of
Twillingate and Fogo
who lost their lives in the Great War, 1914-1918.
It now hangs in the lobby of the new hospital,
and contains 203 names.
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