National Field of Honour

About

The National Field of Honour (French: Champ d’honneur national) is a military cemetery for Canadian and Allied Veterans and eligible dependents. It is in Pointe-Claire, Quebec, Canada. The cemetery has the Governor General of Canada at its Patron.

Established in 1930 and enlarged several times, the National Field of Honour was designated a National Historic Site of Canada in 2007. The cemetery is located between Pointe-Claire and Beaconsfield, Quebec on the north side of the Quebec Autoroute 20 at Exit 48. It is managed by the Last Post Fund and has a small administration staff and groundskeeping team. Volunteer programs support educational visits and commemorative services.

Twice a year, the National Field of Honour conducts large-scale public commemorative services: one in the second half of May and another for Remembrance Day on November 11. Over the past decades, the grounds have been enriched with artifacts. With more than 22,000 burials, the site is the largest military cemetery in Canada.

The National Field of Honour was established and is maintained by the Last Post Fund, a charitable organization founded by Arthur Hair in 1909.

The Last Post Fund's mission is to ensure that no Veteran is denied a dignified funeral and burial, as well as a military gravestone, due to insufficient funds at time of death. Its primary mandate is to deliver the Veterans Affairs Canada Funeral and Burial Program which provides funeral, burial and grave marking benefits for eligible Canadian and Allied Veterans. In addition to delivering the Funeral and Burial Program, the Last Post Fund National Field of Honour supports other initiatives designed to honour the memory of Canadian and Allied Veterans.

The National Field of Honour in Pointe-Claire was consecrated on September 21, 1930. As of 2025, more than 22,000 burials and interments have taken place here. The National Field of Honour is distinct among Canadian military cemeteries in that all headstones are laid flush with the ground. All Veterans, whether they were a General or a Private, lie beside each other as equals. There are 16 war graves from the Second World War, which are registered by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. The number of graves from the major overseas wars is small in Canada because fallen soldiers were usually buried in overseas military cemeteries, as the bodies could not be transported long distances at that time.

The National Field of Honour is freely open to the public, the office is operated from Monday to Friday, 8:30am to 4pm.

The plans for the National Field of Honour Cemetery follow the Art Deco style that was popular during the era of the cemetery’s creation. The original plan features a central paved path intersected by three landscaped circles, each positioned at an equal distance from the others. Each circle supports a large monument. From each circle, transverse paths connect to two side paths, forming the centre of a cross-shaped pattern. The streets in the cemetery are named to honour distinguished Canadian Veterans or military events.

The grave fields between the paths are covered with grass, in which the graves are embedded flush with the ground. A hedge of cedar trees borders the property, solitary, informally placed deciduous and evergreen trees provide vertical focal points while trees planted in a formal manner line the main path.

Later extensions to the west, along with additional monuments and buildings, leave the initial concept intact but depart from the original symmetrical design. The Cemetery added a 12-unit granite Columbarium in 2005. In 2025, the Last Post Fund with support of the Estate of Doug Ferguson established a small water garden in memory of Canadian soldiers buried in the Brookwood Cemetery in Surrey, England.

The entrance to the National Field of Honour is through the Gate of Remembrance, a medieval-style arch flanked by twin towers inspired by Tudor Revival architecture. The Gate was built in 1937 at a cost of $11,850, of which $5,000 was donated by the city of Pointe-Claire. Construction took 13 weeks to complete. The Gate of Remembrance serves as a memorial to all those who made the supreme sacrifice for their country. Over the years, it has served a number of purposes: it was once the home of the groundskeeper, later housed administrative offices, and for a time contained the Last Post Fund archives. The south tower houses an ecumenical chapel, which was added in 1973 with funds donated by former LPF director Bruce Brown. The architect of the Gate of Remembrance was Harold J. Doran, and the contractor was Francis King. Harold J. Doran is also recognized as the architect of Benny Farm in Notre-Dame-de-Grâce, a social housing project for Second World War veterans built between 1946 and 1947.

This building to the north of the Gate of Remembrance is named after the founder of the Last Post Fund. It is used as the cemetery’s office. Before information became accessible online, it served as a reception and interpretive centre where visitors learned about the Field and the backgrounds of buried veterans.

The Currie Circle is dedicated to the memory of Sir Arthur Currie. At its centre stands the Cross of Sacrifice. Sir Arthur commanded the Canadian Corps during the First World War, and later served as principal and vice-chancellor of McGill University as well as president of the Last Post Fund from 1924 to 1932. He died in 1933 and is buried at Mount Royal Cemetery. On June 30, 1947, Last Post Fund Founder Arthur Hair became the first person to be interred in the grounds surrounding the Cross of Sacrifice, which are reserved for the burial of Last Post Fund officials. This Plot is known as the Directors' Circle.

A 22-metre (73) foot metal flagstaff was a gift from the Canadian Steamship Line. It was erected by the Dominion Bridge Company in 1930. Due to its deteriorated state, the flagstaff was replaced in 2022.

The Commonwealth War Graves Memorial (The Quebec Memorial)

This Commonwealth War Graves Memorial consists of two granite blocks. It was erected to commemorate Canadian service personnel from both World Wars who were buried in the province of Quebec but whose graves could no longer be marked or maintained. For this reason, it is also known as the Quebec Memorial. The memorial lists the names of 49 individuals from the First World War and 43 from the Second World War.

The Commonwealth War Graves Commission was established in England by royal charter in 1917. Founded by Major General Sir Fabian Ware, it marks and maintains the graves of Commonwealth service personnel who were killed in action or died from other causes during the two World Wars. The Commission also builds memorials to those who have no known grave and maintains records and registers, including records of civil war dead.

The Last Post Fund and the Commonwealth War Graves Commission collaborated to stop the recycling of veterans’ graves by cemeteries. Thanks to the advocacy of the LPF and the CWGC, this practice is no longer permitted in Canada.

The displayed two-blade metal propeller belonged likely to a Cessna 172 Skyhawk. This type of plane was commonly used for military parachute training. The propeller is placed on a granite plinth, in memory of Veterans of the Canadian and Allied Air Forces. Flight Lieutenant Howard Ripstein donated this monument in 2003. He was a former director of the Quebec Branch of the Last Post Fund.

In 1999, the Canadian Army donated a pair of dual six-inch cannons in memory of Canadian and Allied soldiers who died in wartime service. The company Sir W.G. Armstrong Whitworth & Co., of Newcastle upon Tyne, England, produced the cannons around 1860, likely for the British Army. The cannons bear the serial numbers 1457 and 1467. According to the plaques on the cannons, one was reconditioned in 1956 and the other in 1988.