Dingle Tower
In 1908, Fleming donated the property to the citizens of Halifax for use as a park and proposed the construction of a tower within the "Dingle" to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the establishment of representative government in Nova Scotia; the province having been the first colony in the British Empire outside the United Kingdom to have such a form of government.
An ardent imperialist, Fleming also intended the proposed tower to serve as a memorial to the development of parliamentary institutions in the British Empire, now the Commonwealth. The plan was accepted by the City of Halifax and the local Canadian Club undertook a fundraising drive to raise money for construction. Donations were received from throughout the British Empire and plaques commemorating the contributions, as well as stones from all of the countries of the Empire were placed on the interior walls.
The ten-storey stone "Dingle Memorial Tower" was formally dedicated in an impressive ceremony in August 1912 by Canada's Governor General the Duke of Connaught who was Queen Victoria's son Prince Arthur. The presence of members of the Royal Family and dignitaries from other parts of the Empire emphasized the importance of the occasion.
Two large bronze lions at the foot of the tower were donated by the Royal Colonial Institute of London in 1913. They were designed by British sculptor, Albert Bruce-Joy and are similar to Sir Edwin Landseer's lions at Nelson's Column in Trafalgar Square.
Read more about this topic: Sir Sandford Fleming Park
Famous quotes containing the words dingle and/or tower:
“Now as I was young and easy under the apple boughs
About the lilting house and happy as the grass was green,
The night above the dingle starry,”
—Dylan Thomas (1914–1953)
“Shall I still be love’s house on the widdershin earth,
Woe to the windy masons at my shelter?
Love’s house, they answer, and the tower death
Lie all unknowing of the grave sin-eater.”
—Dylan Thomas (1914–1953)