Quiet Reminder.

Sgt. Hugh Cairns, VC Armoury is located on Idylwyld Drive North.  Cairns, a member of 46th (South Saskatchewan) Battalion, Canadian Expeditionary Force, won the Victoria Cross for actions in battle on November 1st, 1918, dying the following day of his wounds.  He was the last of 71 Canadians to win the Victoria Cross in WW1.

The armoury is the current headquarters of the North Saskatchewan Regiment, a Reserve infantry unit of the Canadian Army.




Prominently seen in front of the armoury is a WW1 German canon.



 

 
It is a 15 cm Kanone 16, and was donated to the City of Saskatoon by the Canadian Government in 1919.
 

 
At one point years ago I remember there being complaints about the cannon being located there.  Some people apparently thought it wasn't appropriate, an odd thing to think about a military facility.
 
The armoury and its "lawn ornament" commemorate a war that is fading from the public conciousness.  Even the youngest of those who have clear memories of World War One are several years past one hundred years old.  The veterans of the war are all gone.  Most of the thousands of commuters who pass by it daily on busy Idylwyld likely don't know the history behind the name, and probably aren't curious enough to find out.