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The official War Memorial Gymnasium opening took place as part of the University’s fall congregation ceremonies on 26 October 1951.

Held inside the gymnasium, the congregation ceremony included the conferring of degrees and the installation of Sherwood Lett as the University’s new chancellor.

Ceremonial presentation of gymnasium key
to Sherwood Lett - 26 Oct. 1951
(UBC 3.1/221)

Following the congregation exercises, family members of service personnel who lost their lives in the two world wars joined members of faculty and special guests in a short procession to the glass-walled Hall of Remembrance.

There, Major-General B.M. Hoffmeister unveiled a wall inscription that read as follows:

UBC Pipe Band at gymnasium opening -
26 Oct. 1951
(UBC 3.1/219)


Unveiling of memorial inscription - 26 Oct. 1951
(UBC 3.1/218)

Remembrance Day programme -
11 November 1951

With a bugler sounding The Last Post and the unveiling of the wall inscription the War Memorial Gymnasium officially opened. Just over two weeks later, the Hall of Remembrance played host to the University’s November 11th Remembrance Day ceremony, a ritual since repeated in an almost unbroken chain.

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The Vision Realized | The Official Opening | Lest We Forget

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