Manitoba Legislature - Victoria Memorial (R.I.P.)

© 2026, Christian Cassidy

Object: Victoria Memorial
Location: Manitoba Legislature grounds
Erected: October 1, 1904
Removed: 2020

This is a three-part 2026 update on all things Queen Victoria, 125 years after her death. To read more about the history of the Victoria Day holiday and her connections to Canada, visit here. For another lost Victoria monument, the Jubilee Fountain, read here.

Winnipeg Free Press, August 13, 1904

Queen Victoria was the monarch who signed the Manitoba Act in 1870, and there were a number of major monuments to her around Winnipeg. One of the most visible for over a century was the Victoria Memorial that sat outside the front entrance of both of Manitoba's legislative buildings.

Not long after the death of Victoria in January 1901, a Provincial Memorial Committee was created under the leadership of Thomas Gilroy and C. N. Bell.

The group shortlisted several British artists for the work, and by the time it made its first public appeal for funds in July 1901, it knew it would be commissioning a larger-than-life bronze sculpture on a stone base that would cost at least $25,000. It also reached an agreement with provincial officials to put it somewhere on the legislature grounds.

It was expected that each municipality in the province would contribute anywhere from $10 to $50 towards the cause, and the Manitoba and Winnipeg governments would provide larger grants. The bulk of the funds, though, would come from individuals. The maximum contribution per person was set at just $5 so that it could truly be considered a people's memorial, with anyone who wanted to contribute to her memory to be able to do so.

The first out-of-town donation came from the schoolchildren of Emerson, Manitoba, who collected $14.95. From time to time, the committee published a long list of donations, many ranging from 50 cents to a couple of dollars.

The donation limit had the intended effect as thousands of people were donating, but the small amounts meant that raising the funds would take a long time. 

Frampton, ca. 1920s

By 1903, the commission for the statue was given to London, England-based artist George Frampton (knighted as Sir George Frampton in 1906).

Frampton already had a long and illustrious career and was considered one of the leaders of the dynamic "New Sculpture" movement. His best-known works today are likely Peter Pan at Kensington Garden (1912) and the Edith Cavell memorial at Charing Cross (1920). (See a list of his memorials here.)

Given his reputation, Frampton was commissioned to produce several Queen Victoria memorials in the years following her death, including similarly seated ones for Kolkata, India, and St. Helen's, England.

Frampton sent a letter to the committee in July 1903 to say that Manitoba's memorial was "progressing very satisfactorily" and would be delivered to Winnipeg early the next summer. 

The next issue to deal with was the stone base. which the committee resolved in October 1903. Local architect Daniel Smith, who was also the provincial building inspector at the time, was chosen to design it and supervise the erection of the entire memorial/ reaction of the full memorial. The stone work was contracted to Fred Dickson and the Winnipeg Stone Co. for a cost of $2,150.

 

May 26, 1904, Winnipeg Tribune

In late May 1904, members of the memorial committee met again with officials from the legislature to finalize its exact location. (This was the original Legislature on Kennedy Street, not the present-day one.) 

Initially, it was thought it could be placed prominently at the intersection of Kenney Street and Broadway, but the final decision was to place it in front of the legislature facing Kennedy Street.

It was hoped that the memorial would be in place for an unveiling on Dominion Day, July 1, 1904, but there were several delays in getting the statue, packed in an 11-foot by 8-foot crate, on a ship. It finally departed London aboard the CPR passenger liner SS Montrose (1) on July 26, arrived in Montreal on August 8, and arrived in Winnipeg by rail a couple of weeks later.

Unseasonably wet weather had delayed work on the base, but by mid-September, the crated statue, derricks and stone base were in place on the legislature grounds, ready for Smith to oversee its assembly. 

Legislature and memorial ca. 1908, Martin Bermand Postcard Collection

At 4 pm on Saturday, October 1, 1904, a crowd of invited guests gathered under cold and rainy skies for the unveiling. The Royal Canadian Mounted Rifles and 13th Field Battery did a march past. Music was provided by the 90th Battalion band. 

Lieutenant-Governor Sir Daniel MacMillan dedicated the statue on behalf so that future generations might remember her". It was left to Premier Rodmond Roblin to do the unveiling.

The new Manitoba Legislature was officially opened in July 1920, and the following June, workers removed the memorial from its old location. After a good cleaning, it was reassembled in front of the new building on August 4, 1921.

On July 1, 2021, the statue was toppled by protesters and damaged beyond repair. The stone base was removed in November 2022, at which time a note was found underneath apologising that due to Prohibition, workers could not leave the customary bottle of brandy.