Remembrance Week: RAF/RCAF Memorial in Dieppe Gardens

Remembrance Week: Windsor's RAF/RCAF Memorial in Dieppe Gardens has Hurricane, Spitfire and Lancaster models by Laura and Mark Williams. The bronze plaque naming Windsor-area RCAF dead moved here from Jackson Park. Quiet riverfront stop before Nov. 11.

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Windsor's RAF/RCAF Memorial stands in Dieppe Gardens on the riverfront.

Dieppe Gardens memorial

The City of Windsor says the monument was created by local sculptors Laura Williams and Mark Williams with Foundry Fine Arts Sculpture Centre. It includes etched representations of pilots and scale models of three major Second World War aircraft: a Hurricane, a Spitfire and a Lancaster.

The original Lancaster plaque honouring veterans, formerly at Jackson Park, was moved to Dieppe Gardens. The bronze plaque is titled as a Windsor memorial to members of the Royal Canadian Air Force from this area who died in the Second World War.

Veterans Affairs Canada also lists the memorial on the Riverfront Trail at Dieppe Gardens and describes the same three aircraft and the plaque moved from Jackson Park.

Jackson Park memorial

The City's Jackson Park RCAF memorial page says a Lancaster bomber purchased in 1964 stood there for about forty years before removal for restoration. In 2005 it was replaced with Hurricane and Spitfire replicas set over a garden silhouette of the Lancaster. A granite replica of the plaque remains there; the original bronze plaque is at Dieppe Gardens. Veterans Affairs Canada likewise notes that the deteriorating Lancaster memorial in Jackson Park was replaced and that the bronze plaque was moved to Dieppe Gardens in 2005.

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