“You ask, what is our aim? I can answer in one word. It is victory, victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror, victory, however long and hard the road may be; for without victory, there is no survival.“
– Winston S. Churchill
Once grounds for the provincial courthouse—Government Square was renamed to Victory Square two years after the Armistice of 1918. The Vancouver war memorial, the Victory Square Cenotaph, was unveiled in April 1924 to 25,000 people, and has since been the centre for all November 11th Remembrance Day services. The ceremony pictured above is from the 1930s. It’s cathartic to think about how different life must have been back then, yet how some things never change.
Hasting Street at Cambie. The old Court House Square, now the site of the Cenotaph and Victory Square. Some wooden stores are to be seen next to the Business College. The street traffic was not too heavy then. Champion and White’s wagon is the star attraction. Citizens often went shopping in a buggy.
What was the use of hurrying?
– Timms Photo
Photo Credit: Vancouver Archives
