Courtenay To Dedicate Memorial To The Crew Of WWII Royal Canadian Navy Corvette This Summer

Later this summer, The HMCS ALBERNI Museum and Memorial in Courtenay will be dedicating a new memorial to the crew of the WWII Royal Canadian Navy corvette.

The dedication ceremony will happen on August 21st - the 80th anniversary of her sinking - at the museum’s main facility on Cliffe Avenue.

On the same day, a second ceremony will be held at the St. Lawrence Peace Garden in Ventnor, Isle of Wight, England, the closest point on land to Alberni’s final resting place.

The Canadian ceremony will be the cornerstone of the Museum’s summer exhibit “59”, which introduces the public, through photographs, letters, personal artifacts, and other items, to the 59 sailors who lost their lives that day in 1944.

The exhibit is currently showing at the Museum’s Education Centre through November 11th.

HMCS ALBERNI was built at Yarrows Shipyard in Victoria in 1940. She served for over three years in the Battle of the Atlantic, protecting convoys between North American and Europe and Africa before being torpedoed and sunk by a German U-boat.

31 of her crew survived.

For more information, contact James at james.derry@alberniproject.org or visit HMCS ALBERNI Museum and Memorial.