A Dark Period Of Global Upheaval

Some recruitment posters from World War One, in both official languages, are seen here.

It was a war that had come at great cost. The country would never be the same.

This portrait by William Orpen is of Robert Borden, the Prime Minister of the country through the First World War.

With the amount of things Canadians had done during the Great War, Borden pushed for them to have a place in the peace negotiations, as well as a greater say for their place in the world. This was still a period in which the British decided foreign policy for their dominions, after all.

The Great Depression was a calamity in and of itself, with the collapse of the economy worldwide plunging the world into the darkness. Canada was hit by it as much as any other country. Here, this includes a quilt made by a church congregation women's organization.

The CBC (Radio-Canada in French) is a legacy of this period, founded as a public broadcaster.

World War Two would drive the world into more upheaval, but also bring us out of the malaise of the Depression. Canada joined Britain from the beginning of the war, and again, the country's military would distinguish itself throughout.

Two photographs taken during the war. Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King hosted two conferences at Quebec City for the western allies, with Winston Church and Franklin Roosevelt, and the Earl of Athlone, who was the governor-general at the time. At bottom, a photograph of King taken during his radio broadcast on VE Day.

Canadian industrial output for the war was total. The country was dedicated to winning the war.

And when it all came to an end, both in Europe and in Asia, the country would celebrate, welcome their sons, husbands, fathers, and brothers home, and grieve for those who never made it back.

Gardens

Here on the second floor of the main house at Moorside, we get a look at the office of a prime minister. King would have work to do even while out of town, and this was the place it was done. It was also a place where his ideas for his home, and his ideas for the country, took shape.

Here we have King's passport- the first Canadian passport, likely a copy of the original. Prior to his government pushing for a distinctly Canadian passport, Canadians just used a British empire passport when travelling abroad.

Newspapers, in French and English, date from the Second World War, the second major crisis King had to steer the country through with his steady hand.

A glance out the window as I started to descend the stairs to the ground floor.

A display case is found here, with some gardening tools, a comic book about King, and one of his hats.

Nearby is a model for one of his follys here on the property.

Also in the display case are a series of documents and photographs- this one taken during the Quebec Conference of August 1943, in which King and the governor general, the Earl of Athlone and his wife, hosted President Roosevelt and Prime Minister Churchill.

Out to the terrace I went. The grounds and the gardens beyond beckoned.

The stone lion we see here is one of the numerous pieces on the property, standing alone. Not all of them got incorporated into follys.

Churchill came to visit a number of times during the war, and by all reports, the two men got along very well. I remember a story from Laurier House- the in-town home King lived in at the time in Ottawa. He had Churchill over to visit, and at the time, the British PM had been going through one of his heart ailments. King offered him the use of the home's elevator, but Churchill wanted to take the stairs with King, even entertaining the notion of a race up the stairs.

Another look at this beautiful home.

From One War To The Next

 This haunting painting is titled The Conquerors, by Eric Kennington. It portrays Canadian soldiers, both living and ghosts, on the march. The dead are distinguished by their pale faces and dark rimmed eyes.

The Great War for Canadian forces came to an end at the Belgian town of Mons, which they liberated in the hours before the armistice.

But the cost of the war was tremendous for the country.

Memorials would be erected in the years to follow, in memory of those who never returned.

But the failure of the peace talks would set the stage for the next war, even more terrible, and the rise of dictators. The next gallery is on the Second World War, and the first thing one sees is this vehicle- once owned by Hitler.

When war broke out, Canada was in it from the start.

Canadians would be part of the war in Europe from the beginning, with the navy engaged in the Battle of the Atlantic, and pilots and soldiers headed for Britain as part of the war effort.

Canada would also be a training ground for pilots of the Allied forces.

This is a flight simulator of the era, said to be harder to operate than actual planes.

The Battle of the Atlantic was the longest campaign of the war, from the first days of the war to the end of the war in Europe. Canadian naval vessels would do escorts for the merchant navy bringing supplies to Europe. A simulation video is part of the exhibit at this area, showing Canadians dealing with a German U-Boat.

U-Boats were the terror of the seas- which Churchill himself acknowledged.

The Formal Gardens

 I continue on here at Moorside today.

This photograph is of one of the follys on the estate, as seen in winter.

A display case includes various items Mackenzie King collected- the bust of a faun, a rabbit doorstop, or a carved block.

Across is the display case within a doorway that I'd shown you earlier. I took this shot of a photograph from the time of the August 1943 Quebec Conference. From left to right, Mackenzie King, the governor-general Earl of Athlone, Franklin Roosevelt, the Countess of Athlone Princess Alice, and Winston Churchill.

Back outside. It was at Moorside where Mackenzie King fully developed his interests in gardening, landscape design, and the balance with nature.

We look downslope here towards the gardens.

Mackenzie King had an interest in collecting pieces of buildings being demolished and bringing them to the estate. His fully realized ideas were follys, while other pieces are scattered here and there.

Before all that, though, the gardens, two of which are formal gardens, the French Garden and the English Garden, both of which are shown in design on this display.

They are a delight in any season.