Acknowledgements

We wish to acknowledge our founding donors, without whom none of this would have been possible: Michael MacMillan, Richard Rooney, Duncan Jackman, Don Cranston, Red Wilson, Blake Goldring, and John Cleghorn. We thank them for their support when The World Remembers was still an unlikely possibility.

Initial work on The World Remembers would not have been possible without organizations that took an interest in this risk-filled undertaking. The International Churchill Society Canada, and the Churchill Society for the Advancement of Parliamentary Democracy were early supporters. Veterans Affairs Canada provided core support during those first years. We received invaluable guidance and international assistance from Global Affairs Canada. The Department of Canadian Heritage provided grants for public displays in Ottawa in 2017 and 2018, and Public Works provided the physical infrastructure for those displays. Above all, however, without the Government of Canada’s endorsement of the concept of The World Remembers, serious engagement by other nations would not have been likely.

In proposing The World Remembers to other governments, we usually received formal interest, but it was the personal interest of some bureaucrats who appreciated the unique core of the project that produced results. Time and again, individuals from ministries of Education, National Defence, Foreign Affairs, Culture or Labour and Social Policy in Berlin, Belgrade, Ottawa, Bratislava, Prague or Rome, became personally engaged which helped build traction with their governments.

The Canadian War Museum presented our displays in 2017 and 2018, becoming our principal presentation partner in 2019 when our interactive kiosk was installed in their Military History Research Centre. The partnership with The Canadian War Museum has become an important resource in our ongoing work of completing this project.

The challenge of engaging multiple governments in a remembrance, education, and reconciliation project faced little chance of success. This made the launch in 2014, with the participation of a core group of nine countries, a significant step forward. Early interest from Joseph Zimet, Director General of Mission du Centenaire in France; Alan Pateman-Jones, Director General of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission; Piet Chielens, Director of the In Flanders Fields Museum; and from the President of the Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge was instrumental in securing the participation of other nations. VDK Arne Schrader’s continued interest has helped the project grow. We continue to appeal to the remaining First World War nations to join The World Remembers.

Private funding remains key to our survival. We gratefully acknowledge the MacMillan Family Foundation, Richard Rooney, the Burns Foundation, Margaret and David Fountain, the McLean Foundation, the Garfield Weston Foundation, the Robert G. Kearns Foundation, the Shevchenko Foundation, and the Montenegrin Cultural Society.

R.H. Thomson is one of Canada’s foremost actor/directors and has received numerous awards during his 40-year career. In 2001, he wrote and performed The Lost Boys, based on letters written home by his five great-uncles who fought in the First World War.

He is a member of the Order of Canada and was awarded the Governor General’s Performing Arts Award for Lifetime Artistic Achievement. His book By the Ghost Light: Wars, Memories and Families, published in 2023, is an exploration of how the stories we tell affect the wars we fight.

Michael MacMillan, Cliff Goldfarb, Jonathan Vance, Cathy Burrows, David Brady, Keith Durrant, and Jacques Fauteux have steered the project through the years.

Reason One created the project’s display software, kiosk, and website, and have calmly guided us through numerous logistical headaches.

Above all, we wish to thank the families of the veterans of the First World War. These families come from almost every world culture, and now live in almost every part of the globe. They carry with them the stories of the millions who lost their lives. We will remember.