This Memorial in Nova Scotia's capital, erected in Point Pleasant Park, is one of the few tangible reminders of the men who died at sea. Twenty-four ships were lost by the Royal Canadian Navy in the Second World War and nearly 2,000 members of the RCN lost their lives.

The Memorial was erected by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission and was unveiled in November 1967, with naval ceremony, by H.P. MacKeen, Lieutenant-Governor of Nova Scotia, in the presence of R, Teillet, Minister of Veterans Affairs.

The monument is a great granite Cross of Sacrifice over 12 metres high, clearly visible to all ships approaching Halifax. The cross is mounted on a large podium bearing bronze panels upon which are inscribed the names of over 3,000 Canadian men and women who were buried at sea. The dedicatory inscription, in French and English, reads as follows:

1914 - 1918 1939 - 1945

IN HONOUR OF THE MEN AND WOMEN OF THE NAVY, ARMY AND MERCHANT NAVY OF CANADA WHOSE NAMES ARE INSCRIBED HERE.

THEIR GRAVES ARE UNKNOWN BUT THEIR MEMORY SHALL ENDURE.

Historical Information:

The Halifax Memorial is one of those erected by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission to commemorate men and women of the Forces of the Commonwealth who fell in the 1914-1918 and 1939-1945 Wars and have no known grave. It commemorates particularly those Canadian men and women who lost their lives at sea.

The Memorial stands in Point Pleasant Park, Halifax, where it can be seen by all ships approaching or leaving the harbour. It takes the form of a tall Cross of Sacrifice, similar in design to that erected in Commonwealth war cemeteries throughout the world, on an octagonal podium, the faces of which bear twenty-three bronze panels inscribed with the 3,257 names. A central panel on the southern face bears the dedicatory inscription.

Source: The Commonwealth Graves War Commission