A new district task force will explore how to add to Oak Bay’s cenotaph, to recognize veterans of more recent conflicts.
Coun. Tara Ney, appointed by the mayor to lead the group, guesses more than 2,000 people attended the recent Remembrance Day service.
“It’s a sign of our times that, increasingly, all generations want a place to reflect and remember those who have sacrificed their lives,” Ney said.
The monument on Beach Drive, built in 1948, honours the 97 Oak Bay men and women who died during the Second World War.
It depicts a woman gazing down at the names of the fallen and bears the inscription “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.”
Stones with bronze plaques were added more than a decade ago to honour those lost in the First World War, Korea, and serving in the United Nations Peace Keepers and Canadian Merchant Navy.
Jensen, moved by meeting a young veteran during a Remembrance Day service, seeks to update the monument to reflect casualties of Canadian Armed Forces operations in more recent years.
“Our committee will consider ways to create a space of remembrance that will have a more wide-reaching relevance for our community,” Ney said.
“The space will be responsive to a changing experience of memory, resolution and sacrifice.”
Anyone with suggestions or feedback can contact her at taraney@shaw.ca.