Displays honour local soldiers

If you were strolling the streets of Swansea and Bloor West Village in Toronto in the week and half leading up to Remembrance Day, your eye might have caught sight of an interesting display installed on the lawn of a school, church or home. The displays included cards with details of soldiers from the First and Second World Wars affiliated with the specific address.

The cards are part of a community project called “They Walked These Streets – We Will Remember Them.” Behind this poignant and simple gesture of recognition is a busy network of volunteers and researchers led by Katy Whitfield, a Toronto high school teacher and historian who grew up in the neighbourhood.

Ms. Whitfield started the project in 2020, inspired by journalist Patrick Cain’s interactive “Poppy File” map. In perusing the map, she discovered that two soldiers who died had lived in her house. On Nov. 9 that year, fellow teacher Ian Da Silva and his kids planted 13 poppies made from pool noodles in their front lawn to recognize the soldiers who had lived nearby. Ms. Whitfield researched 13 names and created 13 info cards, including details of each soldier’s life and death and a QR code linking to their record on the Canadian Virtual War Memorial website. Just in time for Remembrance Day, the cards gave neighbours a place to learn and reflect when pandemic restrictions prevented them from gathering for a remembrance service.

Now in its sixth year, the project has grown a hundredfold to more than 1,350 names in a section of the west end of the city bordered by the Humber River, Dufferin Street, St. Clair Avenue West and Lake Ontario. The project has also moved from homes to public institutions.

“As a teacher, I really wanted to put a collection of names within walking distance to every school,” says Ms. Whitfield. After schools and libraries, she realized that churches have memorials. “And they also do remembrance services.”

A member of Runnymede United Church, Ms. Whitfield started there, adding Presbyterian and other United churches too. Anglican churches in the area came on board two years ago when St. Paul, Runnymede joined the ranks, followed by St. Martin in-the-Field last year, and St. Olave, Swansea this year. In 2025, there were 13 commemorative displays. Each card included the logo of the church or school the soldier had attended, as well as photographs, newspaper articles and more.

Brothers Leonard and Leslie Dutton both died in the Second World War and were parishioners of St. Olave’s. The family who now lives in their home was so moved to learn of this tragic loss in one family that they contacted Ms. Whitfield to ask for a display on their lawn. “They have remained friends with the Duttons’ niece because of their wanting to honour these soldiers, past and present,” she says.

Ms. Whitfield’s passion for military history is palpable. As a former education coordinator for the Vimy Foundation, she led battlefield tours and was a recipient of the Governor General’s Award for Excellence in Teaching in 2015. Part of the prize was a visit to the Remembrance Day commemorations in Vimy, France in 2017 on the 100th anniversary of the Battle of Vimy Ridge.

But more than those impressive accomplishments, it’s the stories that drive her. “This project helps people put a face to the names inscribed on the plaques,” she says. “I feel like I am carrying these stories.”

Indeed, in our conversation she enthusiastically brings up names of soldiers whose relatives or descendants have contacted her. Every little detail fills in more of the lives lived. As a former student told her, she is “uncovering the history of the neighbourhood.”

Ms. Whitfield is open to working with others to replicate the project in other parts of the city, but she also guards the quality and integrity of the research. “It is a real passion project for me.”

With the number of living WWII veterans dwindling, we are at a point in our history when their stories may die, too. Thanks to Ms. Whitfield’s efforts, they have a chance to find a place in a new living history.