‘Vestige of their memory’: Hudson’s Bay war memorials need to be saved, lawyer says

A Toronto lawyer says he wants displays commemorating Bay and Simpsons workers who died in the Second World War at two stores to be saved.

A Toronto lawyer is hoping to find a way to preserve war memorials at two Hudson’s Bay stores.

E. Patrick Shea, who also sits on the senate of the 48th Highlanders of Canada and is the RCAF Foundation’s secretary, said he wants the displays commemorating Bay and Simpsons workers who died in the Second World War to be saved.

The display at the Hudson’s Bay store in downtown Toronto consists of a list of staff at Simpsons, a defunct department store the Bay bought in 1978, that made the “supreme sacrifice.” The arrangement tucked away near a bank of elevators is flanked by two Canadian flags and a wreath of poppies with a purple banner reading, “lest we forget.”

And at the downtown Calgary location closing by June 15 is a bronze plaque bearing the names of dozens of Hudson’s Bay employees who died in the war.

“Most people just see names on a wall, but behind every one of those names is a story,” Shea said.

Most of the almost 100 individuals listed between the two memorials were 18 or 19 years old when they left home for the war, he said. They never returned and now most of the people who knew them are gone as well.

“Some of them may have had children, but even their children would be well into their 80s now,” Shea said.

“The last sort of vestige of their memory are these plaques and they deserve to be in the public eye.”