22 MAY, 2010
In May of 2007 Rear Admiral Hughes attended the dedication of a Memorial Window in St Paul's Anglican Church, in Kingston Ontario, his home town. The window was in honour of the Princess
of Wales Own Regiment and the 21st Battalion, which the PWOR went overseas as, in WWl to join the CEF in France. His Grandfather, 'LCol. (later BGEN) William. St P. Hughes commanded both.
He was much taken with the double panel window and when describing it to his son, Commander Roderick Hughes, in Victoria, he was reminded by his son that 2010 was the Canadian Naval Centennial. This
stirred the grey matter, so he gave the Rector, Andrew Gates, a copy of the Kingston Ceremony and made a proposal to him about a window for St Paul's Naval and Garrison Church in Esquimalt, the
obvious place for a Navy Memorial Window.
The proposal was accepted and a committee was formed and the first meeting took place in Sept 2007. The committee was composed of retired Naval Officers and representatives of the Church and it set
to work to plan the window. The Committee consisted of the following: RAdm. (Ret'd) Bill Hughes , RAdm (Ret'd) Ken Summers, Ms Debbie Towell, Major (Ret'd) Rev. Canon Andrew Gates, Mr Ron Mason,
Mr. Doug Henderson, Mr. Darwin Robinson, and Cdr. (Ret'd) Michael Morres. Admiral Hughes was elected Chairman and off the project went. Permission was obtained from NDHQ to become an Official Naval
Centennial Project and thus the Committee was able to use the Naval Centennial Logo on their correspondence and letters. They found that Mercer and Schaeffer Glasstudios of Victoria, was the only
stained glass company in town capable of the work and a contract was signed with them. The committee decided that a 2 panel window was not big enough to show all we wanted to display so the large 4
panel window at the back of St. Paul's was selected. This window already had a lovely anchor at the top, which of course would stay. The anchor dates from the start of St. Paul's. It was further
proposed that the Church should have a Book of Remembrance into which donors could submit names of those departed to be remembered or those still living to be honoured.
In March 2008, the launching of the fund raising for the project took place in Naden (CFB Esquimalt) Wardroom and by Xmas 2008 $80,000 had been raised. Donations came from N. Ireland, Scotland,
England, 5 US States and all across Canada to the tune of over 400 donations and over 130 of these asked for an entry in the Book of Remembrance which is to be kept in a specially made wooden case
under the window. Another book is also placed under the Window in which this history will be contained and also an explanation of the symbols in the Memorial Window and a complete list of Donors and
some photographs of the construction of the Window.. Darwin Robinson, an expert craftsman in wood, undertook to make the storage shelf for the two books. A web page was stood up for the Window from
2008 to 2010 incl. to explain the Window, show the history of the Navy and St. Paul's Church and list all the Donors. It also displayed the large window to be changed and it initially permitted
online donations.
The design stage was completed after months of research and discussion and a preliminary design was submitted in September 2009. The design was presented in a one eighth scale for viewing and for
minor corrections and was approved by the Committee, by The Parish Council and by Bishop Cowan, who remarked that the design was "elegant". The design was also presented to Rear Admiral Tyrone Pile,
Commander Maritime Forces Pacific, as a courtesy .Shortly thereafter the Window moved to the construction stage.
The glass used for the Window is imported from Germany and was specially ordered. In January 2010, the final preparations were undertaken to prepare for the scheduled 22 May Dedication Ceremony and
a detailed schedule of Milestones was drawn up including the Guest List, the design for the invitations, the form of the Ceremony, parking arrangements, Church decorations, Dedication Ceremony
participants, and of course the removal of the old window and installation of the Memorial Window and the protective Lexan. The invitations for the Dedication Ceremony were mailed on the 11 March,
2010 And the 4th Draft of the Dedication Ceremony was completed. As the returns came in from the invitation list, and the number of refusals became known ,additional invitations were issued in an
attempt to let as many persons as possible participate in the Dedication Ceremony. The 6th and fmal draft of the Dedication Programme went to the printers on the 16 April for a print of 300 copies.
The crafting of the Window was more than 50% complete by the end of March and photographs of the process were taken by John Ducker, parishioner, in order to make a record of the very
intricate and delicate process.
On the 10th May the scaffolding was in place arid the work commenced on removing the old window and replacing some of the rotted woodwork around the Window. From the 17th May to the 20th May the
Navy Memorial Window was put in place and the Lexan protective cover was fitted. On the 20 May the ceremonial, symbolic curtain was put up so that during the Dedication Ceremony, an unveiling could
take place.
The 22 May was bright and sunny and the day proceeded as planned. A Reception was held in the Naden Wardroom after the Ceremony and a special cake was cut by Bishop Cowan and Admiral Pile.
On Sunday, 23 May, a special service was held which was open to the public.
The Anchor at the top is thought to originate with the Church in 1866. The small glass chips around the anchor were changed to blue to tie the anchor in with the rest of the Window.
Scattered about the blue sea in all 4 panels, shown vertically in ghostly white, are the names of Canadian Navy ships sunk in WWl (HMCS Galiano) ,and the 24 sunk in WW2. The red jewels,
scattered about the 4 panels, remember the lives lost when the ships were sunk.
Shown in the gold rope around all 4 panels are the names of the 24 Naval Reserve Divisions going from West to East across Canada.
A stained glass Window must be colourful to be effective so grey hulled ships and grey hulled submarines were ruled out. But colourful symbols of the units were readily available in the
form of their Badges. The badges which were chosen were those of ships with strong historical significance, those representing a class of ships or those representing a type of ship. Furthermore is
was necessary to remember the people of the Navy which added the soul to the hardware.
Now each panel will be explained in detail.
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