341 14 15 16 17 18 The GreatWar A resolution was passed at the Third Dominion Convention of the Canadian Legion of the British Empire Services League (now the Royal Canadian Legion) in 1928 to organize a veterans Pilgrimage back to the old Western Front in northern France and the Flanders region of Belgium. With the unveiling of Canada’s National Memorial at Vimy Ridge anticipated sometime in 1931 or 1932, it was announced that the event, “should be marked by a great pilgrimage, of ex-service men and women of Canada and the dependents of those fallen to be present at this ceremony.”1 By the late 1920’s, touring the old battlefields was nothing new for many, from Britain at least. A short and inexpensive trip across the channel and the old front line was easily accessible. The first battlefield visitors arrived just months after the Armistice and by the end of 1919 more than 60,000 visitors had toured the still ravaged and, even dangerous, battlefields of the Somme, Arras, and Flanders. More visitors would soon follow and for most of the 1920’s war recovering local economies of towns and villages near the old front line experienced a much needed boost as a burgeoning industry of battlefield tourism emerged. Near the old battle The Great Pilgrimage DOMINION COMMAND’S FIRST PILGRIMAGE OF REMEMBRANCE The Taking of Vimy Ridge, Easter Monday 1917, Canadian War Museum, Wiki Commons.
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