TORONTO – Several war memorials previously on display at Hudson’s Bay stores are getting new homes.
Plaques from the department store’s Calgary, Winnipeg and Vancouver locations have all been donated to local branches of the Royal Canadian Legion, said Franco Perugini, a senior vice-president of real estate and legal at the defunct retailer, in a Wednesday email to The Canadian Press.
Another memorial commemorating Simpsons employees who died in the Second World War was given to TD Bank, the financial institution revealed the same day. Simpsons is a former department store HBC bought in 1978.
The plaques have been in need of a new home since Hudson’s Bay closed all of its stores earlier this year and started winding down the business.
The collapse almost immediately caught the attention of lawyer E. Patrick Shea, who sits on the senate of the 48th Highlanders of Canada and is the RCAF Foundation’s secretary.
He started advocating for the preservation of HBC’s memorials, which contain names of several people who left home for war at the ages of 18 or 19.
“Some of them may have had children, but even their children would be well into their 80s now,” Shea said in April. “The last sort of vestige of their memory are these plaques and they deserve to be in the public eye.”
The plaque in Vancouver honoured staff who fought in either the First or Second World War, while those in Calgary and Winnipeg were a tribute to employees who were part of the latter conflict.
The plaque TD received was labelled a “Roll of Honour” and inscribed with a message commemorating workers that made the “supreme sacrifice.”
It was previously displayed by a bank of elevators at HBC’s Toronto flagship store on Queen Street, where it was flanked by Canadian flags and a wreath of poppies.
TD has since moved it several blocks south to a branch on Front Street, which has a public museum displaying artifacts from the company’s more than 170-year history.
The branch is situated where the founder of Simpsons opened a warehouse in 1905 for a mail-order business.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 12, 2025.
