One of the most solemn reminders of the role T&T played in the horrors of two World Wars is the cenotaph at Memorial Park. This year marks the 100th anniversary of the start of the Great War in Europe which grew to engulf the British Empire as well.
As a loyal colony, T&T saw many of its young men enlisting in various corps to fight for their monarch. They came from all backgrounds, ranging from poor black men merely looking for an opportunity to the sons of rich planters who felt that they would return covered in glory. A large number left their bones in lonely war graves in Europe. Given the terrible casualties that were reported (in all over 200 men from T&T lost their lives), a public meeting chaired by the Mayor of Port-of-Spain, Dr Enrique Prada, was held at the Princes Building on August 4, 1916, to discuss a permanent memorial to the deceased. This consultation was attended by Governor Sir John Chancellor and though the idea was approved, it was decided to wait until the war ended to implement it. Thus, it was not until 1918 that the project was revived, and at a public conference in 1919 the suggestion was made that the monument should be erected on Marine (Independence) Square in the area now occupied by the Cipriani statue.
Strenuous objections to this site led to another location being earmarked, this being the “Little Savannah,” which was then an open pasture opposite the Royal Victoria Institute (National Museum). Sir John Chancellor’s successor as governor, Sir Samuel Wilson, approved the transfer of the Little Savannah to the Port-of-Spain City Council to initiate the memorial. It was Sir John, however, who whilst visiting England in 1919 had contacted sculptor LF Roslyn who conceived a design of an arch (much like Paris’s Arc de Triomphe) and produced drawings which were displayed for public viewing at the Royal Victoria Institute. During the war, a stamp tax had been implemented to raise revenue and this was now debited for the immense sum of $32,000 for the cenotaph, with an additional $5,000 being raised by public contributions. The foundation stone of the cenotaph was laid on May 1, 1924, by Sir Samuel Wilson, with a time capsule containing the history of the project as well as newspaper clippings and coins being inserted. The monument was described in the Port-of-Spain Gazette as follows: “The memorial is of portland stone and bronze, with a set of four granite steps around the base constructed on a solid circular concrete foundation about 18 feet across. Standing squarely on the granite steps is the massive base of the column, let into which are the bronze panels engraved with the names of the fallen, some 168 in number. Rising immediately above this are three emblematic groups of statuary—one in front and one on either side. The front represents Courage—the figure of a soldier armed with a rifle, standing guard over and defending a dying comrade who lies on the ground at his feet.
The side groups are the prows of ships emblematic of the part taken in the war by the Royal Navy and the Mercantile Marine, and on each is seated a female figure–the one on the South in a pensive attitude reading the scroll of Fame, the other on the North, bearing a laurel wreath, emblematic of the tender care of the sick and fallen.” On June 28 of the same year, coinciding with the fifth anniversary of the Treaty of Versailles, the cenotaph was unveiled by the mayor and other dignitaries with marines from the warship HMS Ormonde providing the Guard of Honour. The inscription read: “1914-1918. In Honour of All who Served, In Memory of All who fell.” The names of 180 war dead were engraved thereupon with a re-dedication in 1945 for an addition to the memory of the fallen of World War II.
The names of these brave men of the second conflict are on a separate monument in the Military Cemetery in St James. Every year, a dwindling number of WWII veterans and numerous public officials gather at Memorial Park on the Sunday closest to Armistice Day, November 11, to commemorate the sacrifice of the fallen soldiers with a wreath-laying ceremony. T
hough there will soon be no more of those who gave their service in the war effort, the cenotaph will long stand to remind us of the people who dared risk and lose their lives so that others could live in freedom.