One of those most revered names from the War of 1812 is that of Maj.-Gen. Sir Isaac Brock. Referred to as the “Saviour of Upper Canada,” Brock has roads, churches, universities and towns named after him — but why? Through this chronicle, we are going to delve into who Brock was and why he was so beloved in both life and death.

Gavin Watson
Special to Niagara Now/The Lake Report

Following the destruction of the first Brock’s Monument, a committee of prominent citizens was formed to oversee the construction of a new and grander monument befitting the legacy of Sir Isaac Brock.

Among its most prominent members were Sir Alan Napier McNab, lawyer and politician who himself fought in the War of 1812 as a 15-year-old boy, and William Hamilton Merritt, a businessman and politician who led the Troop of Provincial Dragoons during the war and who was also instrumental in the construction of the first Welland Canal.

By 1842, two years after the destruction of the first monument, the committee advertised a contest for prospective designs with the winner receiving £25.

The committee received 35 plans in total, but Thomas Young of Toronto was ultimately chosen as the winner with his Egyptian-style obelisk. 

Unlike the first monument, this design featured neither an interior stairwell nor an observation platform.

With the absence of government funds available to contribute to the second monument, the onus of funding this approximately £5,000 design fell upon public donation.

The project seemed to be going well, as by September 1842 the committee reported that more than £3,200 had been collected by public subscription. 

These funds were raised by the contributions of private citizens, a group representing the citizens of Montreal, militia groups in both Canada West (Ontario) and New Brunswick and many Indigenous nations, who gave the largest donation contributions per capita of the British North American population.

The Chippewa, Huron, Munsee, Moravian, Six Nations of the Grand River, Mississauga, Mohawks from Teyendinaga and Oneida of the Thames, all contributed what they could, several of them having fought alongside Brock in that first year of the war.

Despite this support, further donations were limited and Young’s design faded out of popular memory over the next few years.

By 1848, the United States had announced its plans to erect a national monument to its first president, George Washington, in Washington D.C. — an obelisk design as well.

The monument committee resolved that Canadians could not very well honour their national hero with the same design the Americans used to honour theirs.

With this development and the lack of funds, the project stagnated.

It was not until 1852 that fresh momentum revitalised efforts to rebuild the monument.

The initial fund had swelled to £5,794 through further contributions from the public and interest gained through successful investments.

With the first design pushed to the wayside, a second competition was advertised requesting designs for Brock’s Monument.

This time, only six designs were received, potentially due to a boycott of architects unhappy with the lack of respect in the change of design and the results of the first contest.

Young proposed another design to this contest: This time, he used a Grecian Doric style, which he described as “chaste and affective [sic] in character.”

Also submitted was a Gothic cross design described by a competing architect as “a Gothic mausoleum of most wretched character and miserably rendered.”

The committee did not choose Young’s new design, nor the “wretched” Gothic cross, but rather paid special attention to two designs submitted by William Thomas, the same man who designed the Niagara District Courthouse in Niagara-on-the-Lake, St. Lawrence Hall in Toronto, who would go on to design the Don Jail, located east of the Don River in Toronto, after his work on Brock’s Monument.

Thomas submitted two designs: One was an archway with an equestrian statue of Brock atop and the second was a large column on a tall pedestal, intricately and triumphantly decorated.

The latter was Thomas’ favourite and the design the committee ultimately selected.

The monument would stand as a composite order column atop a pedestal decorated with lions, a symbol of British Empire, and Brock’s coat of arms.

It would stand 56 metres (184 feet) tall from the ground to the top of Brock’s hat, the statue of Brock itself standing 16 feet tall.

The capital atop the column would be decorated with winged victories, the Greek personification of victory, and other decorations of war including shields, cannons, and more lion heads.

There would be a spiral staircase through the column culminating in an interior observation deck to best preserve exterior aesthetics.

This monument would stand as the second tallest of its kind, after Christopher Wren’s column to the Great Fire of London.

It would be notably taller than any monument raised to a military figure in the British Empire, including the similarly designed Nelson’s Column in London.

In 1853, the burial tombs of Brock and Macdonell were completed and a fourth and final funeral was held in the attendance of 12,000 to 15,000 people.

The rest of the monument was built atop their burial site and as the pillar rose, completion was expected in 1856.

The opening was delayed, principally to complete the landscaping around the monument, for which the government granted money toward the clearing and fencing of 40 acres of property, planted additional trees and erected a large, impressive gateway and stone lodge on the old portage road.

On Oct. 13, 1859, 47 years after the Battle of Queenston Heights, Brock’s Monument opened officially to the public in a ceremony that featured speakers from the committee and Sir William Fenwick Williams, a prominent British general during the recent Crimean War.

That day visitors could pay one shilling to climb the 235 steps to the top of Brock’s Monument. 

Today, the monument atop Queenston Heights stands as a testament to the dedication and effort of all those who contributed to it — the donors, builders, engineers, building committee, architect and the men buried below.       

Gavin Watson has worked for the Friends of Fort George as a heritage interpreter for the past three season. He is currently in his second year of teachers college at Brock University, with a focus on history and drama.