Finale

 We start today with Cookhouse, Camp Witley, painted by Anna Airy in 1918.

Canada's Grand Armada, 1914 is a 1919 canvas by Frederick Challener in 1919, depicting the first ships bearing troops for the Great War.

A number of plane nosecone art works have been preserved here as well. These are typical of the Second World War.

Maurice Cullen painted No Man's Land around 1920.

Where the permanent galleries begin and end holds an artifact with a particular distinction. At the end of the First World War, when Canadians liberated the Belgian town of Mons, they presented two of their field guns to the town, saying they were the last guns to fire upon the enemy. In 2018, for the centennial of the ending of that war, Mons gave one of the guns back to Canada, and it now resides here.

One last artifact to see, and it's down this hallway, inside the Memorial Chamber.

The Chamber is a simple, large space with stark architecture. It has an overhead window deliberately placed. Along with Regeneration Hall, this place is a pivot of the entire Museum's architecture. The window was set so that on November 11th each year, at 11 in the morning, the sun (if it's out), will shine through that window and illuminate the only artifact in this room.

That artifact is this tombstone. This is the original tombstone from France of the Canadian soldier who fell at Vimy Ridge and was repatriated to Canada. Today he resides in the most sacred spot of the country- the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at the National War Memorial.

I hope that you have enjoyed this tour of the Canadian War Museum.