On Sunday 25th September 2005
I attended the unveiling of the Wallace Mural on Wallace Street of
Wallaceburg, Ontario, Canada. This was to commemorate the 700th anniversary
of his death and as Wallaceburg is named after him this was most
appropriate. I am told this is the only mural to William Wallace in North
America. The Rotary club and others in the town raised the money for this
mural and here are the pictures I took of the event...
The mural is on the side wall of the Meat Market
and I found Sally and the Wallace folk on my arrival at the event
And here is the mural with Sally and the
Wallaceburg Town Crier in front of it
And this is Chip, the Mayor, who told me he is a
Gordon and that in 1898 his grandfather was elected Mayor of Wallaceburg and
he was elected Mayor 100 years later in 1998
On the left is the Mayor with his grand-daughter
showing that several generations were in attendance. On the right is the
shield that will go up with the mural. Actually later in the day the mural
will be hung much higher on the wall which will be its permanent position
and it was being agreed that they will put up a light sensitive light so
that the mural will be illuminated at night
And on the far right is one of the two artists
that did the mural
And on the right is the other artist
And here are the artists, Cindy Baxter and Wes
Siddall, and they kindly let me into a wee secret. You'll note the Scotsman
showing a bare bum to the English in the mural on the right. Likely most
people will not notice it once it's been hung higher on the wall. Nice one
folks! :-)
Just so you get an idea of where to look :-)
And now the ceremony starts with the Town Crier
ringing us in
The Town Crier addresses the crowd to start the
event
Sally then gives some background to the event
Chip, the Mayor, tells us a bit more about how
it all happened
The Lady from the Wallace Society tells us of a
trip to see Wallace places in England and Scotland and finishes with a very
emotional poem that was written for the 700th anniversary
Crowd scenes of young and old and all ages in
between
The owner of the meat market, whose wall is
being used for the mural gives us a wee talk and also tells us that he
will be painting the wall to show the mural off and arranging for a light
sensitive light that will illuminate the mural at night
The representative of the Ontario Trillium
Foundation tells us about the fund raising
Cindy Baxter tells us a little about the
painting of the mural
Wes Siddall gives his thoughts on the mural
And at the end of the ceremony the pipes played
and more photo opportunities for the local press
And a wee lass wondering where everyone has gone
:-)
And a wee snack of coffee, water and shortbread
biscuits
And just to show I was there I got my picture
taken :-)
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