National War Memorial of Canada
In 1925, Vernon participated in an open, world-wide competition to design and build the National War Memorial of Canada. He was one of seven finalists out of a total of 127 entrants. The seven finalists then submitted scale models of their designs. Vernon was awarded the commission in January 1926 with his entry of "The Great Response of Canada." His design included Liberty holding a torch and winged Victory a laurel wreath, both bronze figures at the top of a granite arch. Below, a cannon is present at the rear of the monument. In front of the cannon, there are twenty-two bronze soldiers under the arch, representing the branches of the Canadian military forces that existed during the First World War.
Work on the monument had not yet been completed when Vernon died of pneumonia in 1930. Six of his siblings completed the bronze statues for the monument. They moulded the figures in clay and cast them in plaster. Then, the bronzes were finished in their foundry at Goddendene. The family completed the work by July 1932. However, construction of the arch in Canada could not commence because the site in Ottawa had not yet been prepared. The bronze memorial groups were mounted on a base instead, and shown at Hyde Park in London. After six months, they were then transferred to the studio in Farnborough where they remained until they were shipped to Canada in 1937.
After a contract was won by Montreal contractors E.G.M. Cape and Company in December 1937, the arch and base for the monument were constructed in Ottawa. Sydney March directed the construction with the assistance of his brothers. The monument, including installation of the bronzes, was finished on 19 October 1938, and landscaping of the area surrounding the memorial commenced. Everything was completed in time for the Royal visit the following spring. The National War Memorial of Canada commemorates the Canadian response during World War I. King George VI performed the unveiling of the monument on 21 May 1939 during a ceremony with an audience of an estimated 100,000.
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