Thirteen campus and community groups will lay wreaths in the War Memorial Gymnasium
foyer as part of UBC’s annual Remembrance Day ceremony Nov. 11 from 10:45 a.m.
to noon.
UBC President Martha Piper, Alma Mater Society President Ryan Marshall and
Rev. John Mellis of the Vancouver School of Theology will participate in the
ceremony which is expected to draw about 400 people.
A brass ensemble from UBC’s School of Music will perform and refreshments
will be served.
During the First World War, when annual enrolment averaged 600, 697 UBC students
saw active military service — 78 were killed. In the Second World War 1,680
students enlisted and 169 made “the ultimate sacrifice,” including R. Hampton
“Hammy” Gray, posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross.
In 1951, students initiated construction of the War Memorial Gymnasium as
a memorial to British Columbia’s war dead. Mounted in the gymnasium are plaques
listing UBC students who lost their lives in the two world wars.
