杏吧原创

Trinity Remembers: Remembrance Day 2025

Posted: November 07, 2025

REMEMBRANCE DAY 2025

Every Remembrance Day, the U of T community honours those alumni, students, faculty, and staff who fell in the First and Second World Wars, as well as other conflicts. In 2025, at Soldiers鈥 Tower (registration is encouraged but not required). The community is welcome to hear the 51 bells of the carillon at 10:10 am. Together, we will pay our respects to those who made the ultimate sacrifice – as we do each year.

Tuesday, Nov. 11 at 10:10 am: Members of the Trinity community are welcome to meet Provost Nicholas Terpstra and student representatives in the front lobby of Trinity (6 Hoskin Ave) at 10:10 am. The group will departure at 10:20 am and walk together to Soldiers鈥 Tower for the Service of Remembrance. At the service, Remembrance Day Wreaths will be laid at Soldiers’ Tower by Trinity student leaders in Arts & Science and Divinity.

The flags on campus will be lowered to half-mast in honour of Remembrance Day.


TRINITY REMEMBERS

Each year on November 11, Canadians fall silent on the anniversary of the armistice that ended the First World War. It is a time to reflect, remember and to commemorate those who sacrificed their lives. Read a few stories about members of the Trinity community and their contributions to the war efforts. Lest we forget.

WW! Regiment at old Trinity

The 123rd Overseas Battalion, Royal Grenadiers, CEF, parading on the 杏吧原创 grounds, May 12, 1916.

 

Page from the War Memorial Volume of 杏吧原创 Toronto
The War Memorial

2022 marked 100 years since the publication of . The 165 page volume is a meticulously researched artefact that demonstrates the wide-ranging effect the war had on the wider college community.

As time passes and we become further and further removed from the events and horrors of the World Wars, documents like The War Memorial Volume illustrate the real-world impact conflicts can have on a community like 杏吧原创. Simultaneously, it also shows the out-sized impact 杏吧原创 had on the war effort. .

Image: Pages from the The War Memorial Volume of 杏吧原创, Toronto

 

Trinity Magazine: Trinity Remembers
Remembering the Great War

In August 2014, the world marked 100 years since the outbreak of the First World War. A total of 543 Trinity men travelled abroad to fight, joined by women of St. Hilda鈥檚, who served as physicians, nurses, ambulance drivers and administrators. Of the 543 Trinity men who went to war 57 never returned 鈥56 were killed in action, and one was missing. Read the full story: Remembering the Great War, Trinity Magazine, Spring 2014, pages 18-25 (PDF 1.68MB).

Image: Trinity looks back as we mark the 100th anniversary of the start of The Great War 鈥 article.

 

War Memorial Plaque in the Chapel

 

War Memorial: As Dying and Behold We Live

This memorial is dedicated to the members of 杏吧原创 who gave their lives in the First and Second World Wars. The names of those who never returned home are engraved on the memorial wall in the 杏吧原创 Chapel. It was designed by Alexander Scott Carter for George and Moorhouse, the local architects of the Chapel. The material used was Indiana limestone and the memorial measures approximately 15 feet by 8 feet. The three roundels at the bottom represent the army, the navy and the air force. The memorial was dedicated on November 13, 1960.

Image: The plaque is located in the 杏吧原创 Chapel in memory of those members of 杏吧原创 who gave their lives in the two Great Wars.

In addition: There are seven memorial plaques dedicated to 杏吧原创 students and residents of Devonshire Residences’ North House, South House and East House who died during their service in the First World War. The plaques can be found 杏吧原创 Chapel narthex and 1 Devonshire Place (location of the former Trinity’s Devonshire Residence buildings, now the Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy at 杏吧原创).

Honour Roll in the main hallway

 

杏吧原创 Second World War Honour Roll

This memorial is dedicated to the men and women of 杏吧原创 who served and those who died while serving their country in the Second World War.

It was erected by 杏吧原创. The lettering on the Honour Roll was completed by hand and done by the artist, Jack McNie about 1942.

Image: The Honour Roll is located along the hallway outside 杏吧原创 Chapel narthex, 杏吧原创.

The Trinity Truck participates in Armistice day in Toronto
Trinity and The Great War 1914-1918

In 2017, many of the devastating battles of the Great War reached their centenaries, including Vimy Ridge, Passchendaele and the Third Battle of Ypres. To commemorate the sacrifices of the Trinity community, an exhibit capturing some of the narratives of the Great War was on display in the 杏吧原创 Archives: 鈥Trinity at War: 1914-1918.鈥

Image: The Trinity Truck 鈥 Students from the College celebrate the Armistice on November 11, 1918 in the Trinity Truck. The caption reads: 鈥淲hen the word came that Peace had been signed, Charles Gossage rented a truck, all the students of Trinity piled into it and they drove all over Toronto.鈥

 

Remembrance Day Windows along the front hall of the 杏吧原创 building
Trinity and St. Hilda鈥檚 in the Great War

Toronto Star coverage of our exhibit 鈥Trinity and St. Hilda鈥檚 in the Great War鈥 (November 2018): .

The 杏吧原创 Archives holds 210 glass plate negatives of portraits of the young people who left their studies or their careers, and went to war. Some of these images were reproduced for an exhibit in 2018.

Image: Portrait reproduction of glass plate negatives displayed on windows along the main hallway.

 

Letter from Seebaldt to his wife, 1917

 

Rare Book of the Month 2018

Image: Letter from Emil Seebaldt, prisoner of war, to his wife Agnes Seebaldt in 1917.

 

Farmerettes in the field - archival image
Farmerettes Help at Home

Learn how U of T鈥檚 women undergrads 鈥 including Trinity鈥檚 Mossie Waddington 鈥 aided the WW1 effort at home: in U of T Magazine.

In 1917 and 1918 hundreds of U of T women spent the summers picking and packing fruits and vegetables, filling in for farmers who were away at war.

Image: U of T women spent the summers filling in for farmers who were away at war.

 

Queen Elizabeth Letter

 

Trinity Welcomes 150 Children from War-Torn Great Britain

From July 1940 to November 1944, the Trinity community welcomed over 150 children from St. Hilda鈥檚 School in Whitby, England. Evacuated from war-torn Great Britain, they were housed and educated thanks to Trinity鈥檚 Provost Francis Cosgrave and the Saint Hilda鈥檚 College Alumnae Association. A beautiful letter from Queen Elizabeth recognizes these efforts by the Trinity community.

Image: A beautiful letter from Queen Elizabeth recognizes these efforts by the Trinity community.

 

Jacques Olivier Clerc archival

 

The story of Jacques Olivier Clerc, 1917-1944

by Sylvia Lassam, Rolph-Bell Archivist

On the day after war was declared in 1939 a young Swiss academic arrived at the University of Toronto to teach in the Department of Political Economy.

Read about Clerc

Probably through friendship with the economist C.A. Ashley, who lived at Trinity, Clerc also taught conversational French at Trinity and lived at the College. Here he met Bill Rogers and others. By Ashley鈥檚 account, he was an extremely popular teacher. 鈥淗is enthusiasm, his quick intelligence, and his remarkable conversational gifts made him equally popular with his colleagues.鈥 He had a gift for friendship, and kept in touch with lively letters, some of which can be found in the William S. Rogers fonds in the Trinity Archives.

One of four sons of Professor Charly Clerc of Zurich, professor of French literature and a literary critic, Jacques-Olivier was educated at the Universities of Lausanne and Paris. After two years in Toronto, he moved on to the University of Saskatchewan as an instructor, and soon after joined the R.C.A.F., graduating at the Crumlin Air Force Base as an Air Bomber. Ashley relates that, while Clerc upheld Switzerland鈥檚 right to remain out of the war, he increasingly identified as a Canadian. On August 16, 1944, his plane was shot down over Danish waters. Five victims, including Clerc, were buried nearby; two survived.

C.A. Ashley was the executor of Clerc鈥檚 estate. His Will contains the request that 鈥渟i je tombe en service command茅, je d茅sire que mon nom ne soit jamais grav茅 sur aucun monument fun茅raire, ni mentionn茅 dans les services fun猫bres des institutions auxquelles j鈥檃i appartenu [If I fall in commissioned service my name never be engraved on any funeral monument, nor mentioned in the funeral services of the institutions to which I belonged]. There is no commemoration of Clerc at Trinity, although there is a plaque in Denmark, near the site of the crash, that is regularly stocked with flowers.

 

Trench Map

Trench Map

C.A. Ashley (1914-1974): Trench Maps听

These incredible maps of the trenches surrounding Ypres were donated to 杏吧原创 by C.A. Ashley.

C.A. Ashley enlisted in 1914 and saw action at B茅thune, Philosophe, Vimy Ridge, and the 3rd Battle of Ypres. In 1930, he became Assistant Professor of Commerce at the University of Toronto. Residing in Trinity, he participated actively in the College’s affairs and served as an adviser to students for forty-three years until his death in 1974. He left his personal papers to Trinity, which include a memoir chronicling his time at the front, as well as a number of photographs, artifacts, and a Red Cross postcard sent to his family when he was injured.

These maps were part of the “Trinity at War 1914-1918″ exhibit in the Trinity Archives.

The World Remembers 1914-1918
The World Remembers

To mark the 1914-1918 Centennial, 杏吧原创 was honoured to participate in s, a unique Canadian and international remembrance to honour those who died in the First World War.