Today, RCMP NL Superintendent Pat Cahill, unveiled the Fallen Members' Fund Memory Garden at RCMP Headquarters in St. John's.
The garden, which is located at the rear of the building, faces the City of St. John's. It is a beautiful area where employees can sit, reflect, find peace, and remember their coworkers who have passed.
"The Memory Garden is a very welcomed and beautiful addition to the RCMP property." said Superintendent Cahill. "We are pleased to avail of such a lovely space, for reflection and honouring memories. We hope it brings comfort for those families and friends of the employees we've lost over the years."
Unique to other memorial gardens that exist within the RCMP across Canada, the Memory Garden is the first of its kind as it includes all categories of RCMP employees, such as regular members, public service employees and civilian members. In addition, it is not limited to employees who have died in the line of duty. Each patio stone in the garden is engraved with the names of the fallen employees.
The Memory Garden also lists the names of the Newfoundland Rangers who transferred over to the RCMP after confederation.
The Memory Garden Chair, Retired RCMP Civilian Member Helen Escott says, "There will be no restrictions based on how the employee passed. Those who died of disease, natural causes, and suicide, as well as those who died on duty, will all be entitled to have their names in the garden at the request of their loved ones."
Anyone wishing to submit a fallen employee's name into the Memory Garden is asked to email RCMPNLMemoryGarden-JardinCommemoratifGRCTNL@rcmp-grc.gc.ca
The Memory Garden was built by volunteers with the Fallen Member's Fund and was acquired through donations and fundraising.
A special thanks is offered to Kent Building Supplies, Heritage Memorials, the RCMP Veterans' Association, the B Division Officers MESS 2021, Marc Cooper Law Office, the RCMP Operations Communications Center, The Firewood Factory, Victor Mullette, Millers Horizon Landscaping, Windco flags, and Gail Penney. The manual labour was completed by the RCMP Veterans Association and serving employees. Without this generosity, the project would not have been realized.