Clock starts on hopes for improvements to historic Cenotaph

NEWS — It’s been a long time since the clocks on the old Cenotaph at Memorial Park have worked, but some day they might start ticking again.

First, though, the Kamloops Museum and Archives hopes to raise funds to enhance the southwest corner of the park, increase the pad area of the Cenotaph, fix up the stairs and improve wheelchair accessibility.

Museum educator Melissa Baker told The Armchair Mayor News an application is being submitted to Veterans Affairs Canada for a Cenotaph restoration grant, which could provide up to $25,000.

“Maybe we’ll look at the clocks” but “right now it’s up in the air,” she said, adding it could take several months for the application to be reviewed.

Baker said the clocks have never worked properly, though an attempt was made to get them going in the 1940s.

A War Monuments in Canada entry says the clocks — one face for each of the sides of the Cenotaph — were purchased in 1921 from Benson’s of England for $1,063. A bazaar held by the Ladies’ Auxiliary to the Great War Veterans Association raised $833 toward the cost.

Now all that was needed was a location and a Cenotaph. A plebiscite in June 1923 favoured the 400 block Victoria Street and a referendum in March 1924 approved $3,800 for construction but there was disagreement on the location.

The northeast corner of Battle and Second was eventually chosen over several alternatives — the Stuart Wood School grounds at Third and St. Paul Street, Riverside Park (then known as Coronation Park), and Victoria Street between Fourth and Fifth Avenues.

The Cenotaph was unveiled May 24, 1925. Remembrance Day ceremonies were held there until the 1990s when a smaller stone Cenotaph was built in Riverside Park to accommodate the growing crowds.