“Particularly Torontoesque”: Commemorating the Centennial of the War of 1812

As 1912 opened, only sketchy plans existed at Toronto’s city hall and Queen’s Park to mark the Centennial of the war. It had not faded, however, from public consciousness in the decade before 1912. Historical societies and archives helped sustain a flow of articles, books, and letters on the war, many published in Toronto. In both Toronto and the Niagara region homage to General Isaac Brock of Queenston Heights fame and Laura Secord, the “heroine of Beaver Dams,” never abated.

The laying of wreaths at Secord’s portrait at Queen’s Park had become an annual event on Empire Day. One military pageant proudly enacted scenes from the war, and displays of relics attracted interest. Further attention had been stimulated by the erection of a monument to the soldiers of 1812-14 at the military burial ground at Victoria Square in 1902-7. As the Centennial drew closer, the completion of the South African War memorial on University Avenue in 1910 spurred Toronto’s imperial and military leaders to step forward