page_title: Canadian National Vimy Memorial
section_title: Sociocultural influence
hierarchical_section_title: Canadian National Vimy Memorial / Sociocultural influence
caption_attribution_description: English: Ghosts of Vimy Ridge depicts ghosts of the Canadian Corps on Vimy Ridge surrounding the Canadian National Vimy Memorial.
context_page_description: The Canadian National Vimy Memorial is a war memorial site in France dedicated to the memory of Canadian Expeditionary Force members killed during the First World War. It also serves as the place of commemoration for Canadian soldiers of the First World War killed or presumed dead in France who have no known grave. The monument is the centrepiece of a 100-hectare preserved battlefield park that encompasses a portion of the ground over which the Canadian Corps made their assault during the initial Battle of Vimy Ridge offensive of the Battle of Arras.
  The Battle of Vimy Ridge was the first time all four divisions of the Canadian Expeditionary Force participated in a battle as a cohesive formation, and it became a Canadian national symbol of achievement and sacrifice. France ceded to Canada perpetual use of a portion of land on Vimy Ridge on the understanding that Canada use the land to establish a battlefield park and memorial. Wartime tunnels, trenches, craters, and unexploded munitions still honeycomb the grounds of the site, which remains largely closed off for reasons of public safety.
context_section_description: The Canadian National Vimy Memorial site has considerable sociocultural significance for Canada. The idea that Canada's national identity and nationhood were born out of the Battle of Vimy Ridge is an opinion that is widely repeated in military and general histories of Canada. Historian Denise Thomson suggests that the construction of the Vimy memorial represents the culmination of an increasingly assertive nationalism that developed in Canada during the interwar period. Hucker suggests that the memorial transcends the Battle of Vimy Ridge and now serves as an enduring image of the whole First World War, while expressing the enormous impact of war in general, and also considers that the 2005 restoration project serves as evidence of a new generation's determination to remember Canada's contribution and sacrifice during the First World War.
  The Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada recognized the importance of the site by recommending its designation as one of the National Historic Sites of Canada; it was so designated in 1996, and is one of only two outside of Canada. The other is the Beaumont-Hamel Newfoundland Memorial, also in France. Remembrance has also taken other forms: the Vimy Foundation, having been established to preserve and promote Canada's First World War legacy as symbolized by the victory at the Battle of Vimy Ridge, and Vimy Ridge Day, to commemorate the deaths and casualties during the battle. Local Vimy resident Georges Devloo spent 13 years until his death in 2009 offering car rides to Canadian tourists to and from the memorial at no charge, as a way of paying tribute to the Canadians who fought at Vimy.
  The memorial is not without its critics. Alana Vincent has argued that constituent parts of the monument are in conflict, and as a result the message conveyed by the monument is not unified. Visually, Vincent argues there is a dichotomy between the triumphant pose of the figures at the top of the pylons and the mourning posture of those figures at the base. Textually, she argues the inscription text celebrating the victory at the Battle of Vimy Ridge strikes a very different tone to the list of names of the missing at the base of the monument.
  The memorial is regularly the subject or inspiration of other artistic projects. In 1931, Will Longstaff painted Ghosts of Vimy Ridge, depicting ghosts of men from the Canadian Corps on Vimy Ridge surrounding the memorial, though the memorial was still several years away from completion. The memorial has been the subject of stamps in both France and Canada, including a French series in 1936 and a Canadian series on the 50th anniversary of the Armistice of 11 November 1918. The Canadian Unknown Soldier was selected from a cemetery in the vicinity of the Canadian National Vimy Memorial, and the design of the Canadian Tomb of the Unknown Soldier is based upon the stone sarcophagus at the base of the Vimy memorial. The Never Forgotten National Memorial was intended to be a 24-metre (79 ft) statue inspired by the Canada Bereft statue on the memorial, before the project was cancelled in February 2016. A 2001 Canadian historical novel The Stone Carvers by Jane Urquhart involves the characters in the design and creation of the memorial. In 2007, the memorial was a short-listed selection for the Seven Wonders of Canada. The Royal Canadian Mint released commemorative coins featuring the memorial on several occasions, including a 5 cent sterling silver coin in 2002 and a 30 dollar sterling silver coin in 2007. The Sacrifice Medal, a Canadian military decoration created in 2008, features the image of Mother Canada on the reverse side of the medal. A permanent bas relief sculpted image of the memorial is presented in the gallery of the grand hall of the Embassy of France in Canada to symbolize the close relations between the two countries. The memorial is featured on the reverse of the Frontier Series Canadian polymer $20 banknote, which was released by the Bank of Canada on 7 November 2012.
caption: Ghosts of Vimy Ridge by Will Longstaff
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