By Nancy Miller Chenier
War memorials in Ottawa can be large and clearly visible to any passerby or they can be small and noticed only occasionally by casual observers. In the case of the memorial windows at the French Baptist Church, the images are seen most clearly when it is dark outside with light shining from the inside.
When dedicated in 1920, the French Baptist Church at the corner of King Edward Avenue and Clarence Street was the only one of this denominational category in Ontario. In the decades since 1890, Reverend George R McFaul and his fellow missionaries had taken the faithful from meetings in homes to a small chapel on the Clarence-King Edward corner to this building designed by local architect and fellow Baptist, W.J. Abra.
Adding grace to this building are two stained glass windows that tell a story of sacrifice by two ordinary soldiers during the First World War. Like the two men and the small Baptist congregation of about 130 adherents, the windows are modest examples of church stained glass. But the artistic work of Ottawa’s Colonial Art Glass Company tells a compelling story.
The story of two windows is really a tale of two families in the congregation and the death of their beloved men. The Canadian Baptist journal in reporting the dedication describes the windows as follows:
“There are two memorial windows. A beautiful one of stained glass, the rose window on the Clarence Street side containing a picture of an open Bible, the gift of the Young People’s Society in memory of Edmund C. Lawrence of the 38th Royal Ottawa Battalion who was killed in action on the Somme in November, 1916. The other, a very artistic one, facing on King Edward Avenue, is a portrayal of Holman Hunt’s famous picture, “The Light of the World”, showing the figure of Christ, knocking at the ivy-covered door. This was a gift of Mr. and Mrs. John Reymond in memory of their son George, who fell at Cambrai in September, 1918.”
Edmund Clifton Lawrence was the first to enlist and the first to die. He was 37 years old when he enlisted in July 1915. At the time, he had a wife Frances and four children aged 9 months, 3 years, 6 years and 8 years. His previous occupation was wire splicer. He was 5 feet 10 inches in height with a fair complexion, grey eyes, and brown hair. He sailed via Bermuda to England in 1916. In August of that year he was at Havre France and killed in action on November 18, 1916.
Edmund was a casualty of the final attack of the Battle of the Somme in an offensive recalled as one of the war’s most significant campaigns and one of the bloodiest in human history. Historical sources claim that “The Somme had cost Canada 24,029 casualties, but it was here that the Canadians confirmed their reputation as hard-hitting shock troops.” Edmund’s name is inscribed on the Vimy Memorial.
Perhaps John George Tell Reymond knew the Lawrence family through involvement in the church and felt that he should also do his bit. In May 1917, when he was only 19 years old, he enlisted for the Canadian Overseas Expeditionary Force. His previous occupation was listed as chauffeur and clerk. He was described as 5 feet and 8 inches in height with a fair complexion, blue eyes and brown hair. His mother Bessie was named as his beneficiary. After training, he sailed from Halifax in September and within a year was in France.
George was killed in action the following year, on September 28 1918, a few months after being sent to the field. He was just 20 years of age and died the day after Canadians had secured the Canal du Nord and captured Bourlion Woods. He is buried in a communal cemetery at Raillencourt, a village near Cambrai. He was one of the more than 30,000 Canadian killed and wounded in the Battle of Cambrai.
Two families of this small French Baptist church not only experienced the distant and isolated death of loved ones but they were not permitted the usual personal and intimate rituals that follow such losses. Instead, the installation of these stained glass windows provided the enduring memory of ordinary men, their wartime sacrifice, and their link to this small Lowertown church.