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Dedication of the Canadian National Vimy Memorial
July 26, 1936

After eleven years of construction and approximately $1.5 million (in 1930s dollars), the Canadian National Vimy Memorial was unveiled on July 26, 1936.

The following information is taken from the book The Epic of Vimy. Compiled and edited by W.W. Murray. 2nd ed. Ottawa : The Legionary, 1937. 223 p

• In preparation for the 1936 Vimy Pilgrimage, a Special Vimy Passport was made available to pilgrims, without cost, by the Government of Canada. More than 6,000 of these special passports were supplied.
• On July 16, 1936, five trans-Atlantic liners departed the port of Montreal, Canada, for the unveiling of the Canadian National Vimy Memorial in France: the S.S. Montrose; S.S. Montcalm; S.S. Antonia; S.S. Ascania; and the S.S. Duchess of Bedford.
• Some 300 wreaths were shipped from Canada aboard the S.S. Montrose to be laid at the different sites of commemoration during the pilgrimage.
• An estimated 50,000 Canadian, British and French Veterans and their families witnessed the unveiling on July 26, 1936. They included approximately 8,000 Canadian Veterans, more than 6,000 of whom had travelled to Vimy from Canada.
• In all, an estimated 100,000 people from many different countries were present. One English newspaper stated that there were as many persons present on Vimy Ridge on July 26, 1936, as there had been on April 9th, 1917.
• Fifty school children with their teachers from each of the five French communes that had given the land to Canada, and two hundred children from Arras (located approximately 14kms south of Vimy) were invited to the ceremony. They represented the future.
• The monument was officially unveiled by His Majesty King Edward VIII who, while Prince of Wales, had served on the staff of the Canadian Corps in France, accompanied by Albert Lebrun, President of France. This consisted of releasing the folds of the Union Jack enveloping the Figure of Canada, the sorrowful figure of a woman representing Canada – a young nation mourning her dead. She was carved from a single, 30-tonne block of stone and is the largest single piece in the monument.