The war memorial cenotaph in Veterans Park in downtown Port Coquitlam was dedicated 90 years ago on Nov. 11, 1923. On a dreary Sunday afternoon, many braved the cold weather to witness the unveiling of the monument, erected to honour the local fallen soldiers of the Great War, which had ended just five years earlier.
Prior to being relocated across town beside city hall on McAllister Avenue in 1968, the cenotaph stood at Aggie Park on PoCo's north side, in the area now known as McMitchell Park. Amongst the crowd assembled that afternoon in 1923 were the town's Great War veterans, who had fought for their country in that "War to end all Wars."
Arthur Johnson was one of them. He had emigrated to Canada from Pangbourne, Berkshire, England in 1907 and came to Coquitlam in 1912. He served overseas with the Canadian Expeditionary Force during the First World War as part of Gen. Currie's Canadian Corps staff and witnessed the horror and devastation that epitomized that global struggle. While in the trenches at Cologne, Arthur turned his "tin-pot" steel helmet into an artist's canvas, painting upon it a poignant scene of a fellow soldier standing beside a nearby cathedral, which he titled "The Last Hole." It was a keepsake he treasured for the rest of his life.
Johnson was an avid gardener and worked many years for the city of Port Coquitlam building roads and sidewalks for a growing city. But was best known for his landscaping work at city hall. He planted the willow and magnolia trees, and created the stonework and the gardens there, filling in the old creek bed of the Coquitlam River that once ran by the area occupied years later by that same war memorial cenotaph.
To celebrate Port Coquitlam's 2013 Centennial, a website was created asking the public for artefacts and memorabilia to be included in a time capsule that was later buried in Veterans Park on Oct. 15, 2013. One interesting submission emailed from Sarnia, Ont. was a photograph of Arthur Johnson's painted WW1 helmet, along with some historical documents, contributed by Arthur's granddaughter, Marilyn Swire.
It seemed a fitting tribute to include a bit of Arthur Johnson's history in our time capsule, history that had come full circle: What began in the trenches of WW1, the unveiling of the cenotaph at Aggie Park in 1923 and its subsequent move later over by city hall, to finally finish there beneath the trees and gardens that were so near and dear to him during his life.
A fitting tribute, indeed.
(Note: A special thank you to the PoCo Spirit Committee's Linda Sliworsky for her work on the time capsule.)
Your History is a column in which, once a month, representatives of the Tri-Cities' three heritage groups writes about local history. Bryan Ness is with the Port Coquitlam Heritage Society.
