Beechwood Cemetery is the national cemetery of Canada, located in the east end of Ottawa, Ontario. Over 82,000 people are buried in the cemetery, including Governor General Ramon Hnatyshyn, Prime Minister Robert Borden, and several members of Parliament, premiers, Canadian Armed Forces personnel and veterans, Royal Canadian Mounted Police personnel, Canadian Security Intelligence Service intelligence officers, and Hockey Hall of Famers, alongside other notable Canadians. In addition to being Canada's national cemetery, it contains the National Military Cemetery of the Canadian Armed Forces and the National Memorial Cemetery of the RCMP.
Honours and designations Beechwood has received various honours and designations because it is recognized as an example of 19th-century rural cemeteries and as a place of national significance and importance as a depository of Canadian history. It was designated as a National Historic Site of Canada in 2001. The cemetery has served as the National Military Cemetery of Canada since 2001 and has served since 2004 as the RCMP National Memorial Cemetery.RCMP National Memorial Cemetery: Beloved Canadians of a World-Renowned Uniform, Beechwood Cemetery Governor General Michaëlle Jean opened the Beechwood National Memorial Centre on 7 April 2008. In 2017, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service's National Memorial Cemetery was established at Beechwood.
Pipe Major Sergeant Tom Brown is the "on call" piper of the National Military Cemetery at Beechwood, where he can perform up to a dozen outdoor funerals a year.
Hall of Colours When new military colours are received or a unit is disbanded, colours are treated with utmost respect to military service and are never destroyed. After being carried on parade for the last time, the colour party presents the colours prior to the ceremony in which they are laid up for safekeeping in the Hall of Colours. Designed by Robertson Martin Architects, the Hall of Colours features a memorial stained glass window featuring an oak tree in leaf honouring Canadian military chaplains. The Hall of Colours was supported by a donation of $50,000 from Dominion Command of the Royal Canadian Legion.
The retired colours of Canada's army, air force, and naval regiments are mounted at ceiling level in the Hall of Colours in the National Memorial Centre. They include: Royal Canadian Navy's 30-year-old Queen's Colour (2008) 2nd Battalion Royal 22e Régiment Queen's Colour and Regimental Colour 2nd Battalion, The Royal Canadian Regiment Queen's Colour and Regimental Colour 412 Squadron's retired Standard (2011) Royal Canadian Dragoons' 2nd. Guidon (2012) Les Fusiliers du St-Laurent Queen's Colour and Regimental Colour (2012) 436 Transport Squadron's retired Standard (2012) 400 Tactical Helicopter Squadron's Standard (2013) 411 Tactical Helicopter Squadron's Standard (2013) 3rd Battalion, The Royal Canadian Regiment's Regimental Colour (2014)
History In the 1870s, smallpox and other infectious diseases were very prevalent in Ottawa. In an attempt to prevent the spread of these diseases, the City of Ottawa passed a bylaw in January 1872 which prohibited the burial of human remains within the city's limits after December 31, 1872. As a result, the Sandy Hill Cemetery, located within the city limits, was closed. The city's Protestant churches opened Beechwood Cemetery, while the Catholics established Notre-Dame Cemetery.
Many of the early burials at Beechwood were remains moved from Sandy Hill, which had been used by the Anglican, Presbyterian, Wesleyan Methodist, and Catholic Churches since the 1840s.
The first monument in the cemetery was erected by members and friends of the 2nd Ottawa Field Battery and unveiled on September 13, 1873. The sculptured monument of granite, sandstone, and Italian marble was dedicated to the memory of their former commander, Captain James Forsyth.
Canadian soldiers who were killed in the line of duty and war veterans have been buried in Beechwood Cemetery since the North-West Rebellion of 1885. The cemetery contains the National Military Cemetery which consists of two sections managed by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, a Veterans Section owned by Veterans Affairs Canada, and the National Military Cemetery of the Canadian Forces, created in 2001 and owned and managed by the federal Department of National Defence.
The cemetery inspired a classic Canadian poem "In Beechwood Cemetery" by Archibald Lampman with its memorable final line, "They know no season but the end of time."
Moses Chamberlain Edey designed the cemetery entrance gates in 1891.
The Commonwealth War Graves Commission is responsible for the graves of 98 Commonwealth (mainly Canadian) service personnel of World War I and 113 of World War II. The commission also maintains the Ottawa Cremation Memorial, in a shelter adjoining the newer of the veterans' plots, which lists 26 personnel who were cremated in Canada and the US in World War II. CWGC Cemetery Report.
Noted for its Neo-Gothic architecture, the mausoleum at Beechwood was built by Canada Mausoleums Ltd. in the early 1930s. After a few years of operation, in a time of depression and financial difficulties, the mausoleum became the property of the cemetery. The building features stained glass windows designed by noted stained glass artist James Blomfield.
The Commonwealth War Graves Commission erected a memorial, known as a Cross of Sacrifice, incorporating a bronze sword inlayed in a granite cross in memory of the war dead buried in the cemetery's field of honour.
On 5 March 2009 Environment Minister Jim Prentice introduced legislation to designate Beechwood as the National Cemetery of Canada due to "its location here in our national capital, Beechwood serves as a focal point for our national memorial events, including Remembrance Day, and it is an appropriate place to conduct state burials." This was done to "serve as an important symbol of Canadian unity and pride and a means of preserving and promoting Canada's rich history and our diversity." The bill was passed on March 6. The bill received royal assent on April 23, 2009.
The multi-faith aspects include a monument to Our Lady of Fatima, Élisabeth Bruyère, St. Marie-Marguerite d'Youville, St. Charbel (for the Lebanese community) and a pagoda in the Chinese section of the cemetery and an Aboriginal Tribute Garden.
Interments
A full list of notable individuals buried at Beechwood can be found on the cemetery's website.
List by death year:
Thomas McKay (1792–1855), businessman, a founder of the city of Ottawa Louis-Théodore Besserer (1785–1861), businessman, notary, politician John Bower Lewis (1817–1874), mayor of Bytown (1848–1849), mayor of Ottawa (1855–1857) William Henry Lee (1799–1878), civil servant, first Clerk of the Privy Council (1867–1872) Maria Hill (1791–1881), surgeon's assistant, heroine of the War of 1812 Joseph Merrill Currier (1820–1884), politician, businessman James Skead (1817–1884), businessman, politician Edward McGillivray (1815–1885), mayor of Ottawa (1858–1859) Robert Lyon (1829–1888), mayor of Ottawa (1867) Henry Franklin Bronson (1817–1889), lumber baron William Goodhue Perley (1820–1890), businessman, politician Alexander Workman (1798–1891), mayor of Ottawa (1860–1862) C. W. Bangs (1814–1892), mayor of Ottawa (1878) William Pittman Lett (1819–1892), journalist, bureaucrat, poet Sir William Johnstone Ritchie (1813–1892), second Chief Justice of Canada Hewitt Bernard (1825–1893), lawyer, Father of Confederation Alfred Edmonds (1821–1893), artist, draughtsman, cartographer Alonzo Wright (1821–1894), businessman, politician John Rochester (1822–1894), industrialist, mayor of Ottawa (1870–1871) Henry Wentworth Monk (1827–1896), Canadian Christian Zionist Moss Kent Dickinson (1822–1897), mayor of Ottawa (1864–1866) Thomas Fuller (1823–1898), architect, designer of the Parliament Buildings of Canada William Kingsford (1819–1898), historian, civil engineer Archibald Lampman (1861–1899), poet William H. Hurdman (1818–1901), entrepreneur, community leader Nicholas Flood Davin (1840–1901), lawyer, journalist, politician Douglas Brymner (1823–1902), journalist, civil servant, archivist Sir John George Bourinot (1837–1902), historian, political scientist, newspaper publisher William McDougall (1822–1905), lawyer, politician, Father of Confederation Sir Henry Newell Bate (1833–1906), Canadian industrialist, first Chairman of the National Improvement Commission (National Capital Commission), founder of Beechwood Cemetery, Founder of All Saints Anglican Church (Ottawa) Andrew George Blair (1844–1907), statesman, Premier of New Brunswick John Mather (1827–1907), businessman, millwright, machinist Hod Stuart (1879–1907), ice hockey player, member of Hockey Hall of Fame James Fletcher (1852–1908), entomologist, botanist, writer Sir Samuel Henry Strong (1825–1909), 3rd Chief Justice of Canada (1892–1902) George Cox (1834–1909), mayor of Ottawa (1894) James Davidson (1856–1913), mayor of Ottawa (1901) Henry James Morgan (1842–1913), civil servant, lawyer, editor Archibald Blue (1840–1914), teacher, journalist, civil servant Thomas Keefer (1821–1915), civil engineer Walker Powell (1828–1915), businessman, militia officer, politician Sir Sandford Fleming (1827–1915), engineer, inventor Thomas Willson (1860–1915), inventor Henry Newell Bate (1828–1917), industrialist, first chairman of the Ottawa Improvement Commission J. P. Featherston (1830–1917), mayor of Ottawa (1874–1875) William Dawson LeSueur (1840–1917), civil servant, author Wilfred Campbell (1858–1918), poet Sir Cecil Spring Rice (1859–1918), British Ambassador to the United States Sir Collingwood Schreiber (1831–1918), surveyor, engineer, civil servant Harris Harding Bligh (1842–1918), lawyer and librarian Hamby Shore (1886–1916), ice hockey player Moses Chamberlain Edey (1845–1919), architect Lawrence Lambe (1863–1919), geologist, palaeontologist, ecologist James Grant (1831–1920), physician, politician Sir Donald Alexander Macdonald (1845–1920), militia officer John Macoun (1831–1920), noted naturalist after which the Macoun marsh wild life area in the cemetery is named John Mortimer Courtney (1838–1920), civil servant Erskine Henry Bronson (1844–1920), businessman, politician Thomas Birkett (1844–1920), mayor of Ottawa (1891) Arthur L. Sifton (1858–1921), statesman, Premier of Alberta David Ewart (1841–1921), Chief Dominion Architect (1896–1914) William Cameron Edwards (1844–1921), businessman, politician John Gunion Rutherford (1857–1923), veterinarian, civil servant, politician Otto Julius Klotz (1852–1923), astronomer, surveyor Louis Henry Davies (1845–1924), 3rd Premier of Prince Edward Island (1876–1879), 6th Chief Justice of Canada (1901–1918) Henry Watters (1853–1924), mayor of Ottawa (1924) Jack Darragh (1890–1924), ice hockey player, member of the Hockey Hall of Fame Roberta Elizabeth Odell Tilton (1837–1925), social reformer, co-founder of the National Council of Women of Canada Sir Edward Morrison (1867–1925), journalist, Canadian Army officer John Rudolphus Booth (1827–1925), lumber tycoon McLeod Stewart (1847–1926), mayor of Ottawa (1887–1888) William P. Anderson (1851–1927), civil engineer James White (1863–1928), geographer, chief draftsman for the Geological Survey of Canada William Borthwick (1848–1928), mayor of Ottawa (1895–1896) Harold Fisher (1877–1928), mayor of Ottawa (1917–1920) James Colebrooke Patterson (1839–1929), federal cabinet minister, 6th Lieutenant Governor of Manitoba (1895–1900) William Stevens Fielding (1848–1929), 7th Premier of Nova Scotia (1884–1896) Frederick Montizambert (1843–1929), physician, public servant, member of the Canadian Medical Hall of Fame Henry Joseph Woodside (1858–1929), businessman, journalist, photographer James Wilson Robertson (1857–1930), educator, cheese producer