Ontario War Memorials: Preston

Sunday 3 September 2023

Preston - Parklawn Cemetery

Location: Waterloo Region N 43.40941 W -80.37333

750 Fountain Street North, Cambridge.

This memorial consists of two parts, two separate memorials in cemeteries across the road from each other, so I have chosen to include them into one post. The former town of Preston is now part of the much larger conglomeration of Cambridge.

The first and oldest memorial is found in the Preston Cemetery, on the east side of Fountain Street. The memorial is a granite cross with an embedded sword and the names of three local men who died during World War I. The cross was sponsored by the Sons of England Benefit Society (S.O.E.), a fraternal society for English Protestants, originally founded in Toronto, Canada, during the year 1874. Its purpose was to bring Englishmen together for mutual support, social intercourse, and to provide financial security to them and their families in times of sickness, hardship or death. In addition to these aims, the society acted as a cultural organization, aspiring to preserve and celebrate the Anglo-Protestant cultural heritage of its members. The society established a network of hundreds of lodges throughout Canada. Several other graves throughout the cemeteries are decorated by metal Union Jack flags, which I assume represent other members of the S.O.E. buried in these cemeteries.

The second memorial is found in the Parklawn Cemetery, on the west side of Fountain Street. It also consists of a granite cross bearing the words Lest We Forget and was sponsored by the local branch of the Royal Canadian Legion. This is obviously a much newer memorial but does not indicate any names or specific wars or conflicts.