(From Left) Adam Doran of French Brothers Roofing and Mark and Adam Busscher of Picton Home Hardware flank retired sheet metal worker and West Lake resident Gil Large. Supported by French Brothers and Picton Home Hardware, Mr. Large created a memorial copper cross and wreath to honour the women of Canada who assisted in the allied effort of World War II by working in factories and mills during the early 1940’s. (Jason Parks/Gazette Staff)
After a summer at Hideaway Trailer Park in West Lake, retired sheet-metal worker and part-time County resident Gil Large, renowned for his copper wreaths, was seeking inspiration. During a winter in Costa Rica, in search of a cold cerveza one day, he found it.
“They had a picture of Rosie the Riveter at the bar and I wondered to myself, did we have such a person?” recalled Mr. Large.
As it turns out, we did. In fact, our version likely inspired the American one.
In May, 1941, Veronica Foster was 19. She went to work at the John Inglis Company in Toronto, building Bren light machine guns for the Allies.
As part of the outreach required to build a female work force to offset the thousands of men signing up for military service, the National Film Board started to document and promote women who were vital to the war effort.
Ronnie, the Bren Gun Girl, was born. A series of NFB photographs showed Ronnie building weapons at the Toronto factory by day — and letting her hair down at night. She was shown playing softball or going out dancing.
Ronnie inspired one million Canadian women to join the war effort by working in factories and mills. The year after her debut, Kay Kyser’s “Rosie the Riveter” appeared in the United States. In May 1943, Norman Rockwell’s cover for the Saturday Evening Post depicted a brawny Rosie eating a ham sandwich on her lunch break.
A star was born.
In 2018, Mr. Large created a memorial copper wreath for the Streetsville Legion Branch 139 and, more recently, honoured one of their members, World War II veteran Bob Cairns with a similar piece of art, commemorating Mr. Cairns’s service in WWII as a radio operator in the Royal Canadian Navy.
This time, Mr. Large has crafted a ten foot tall, five foot wide cross bearing a weath. Inside 21 copper poppies forming a circle is a print of Canada Post’s 2020 stamp, honouring Veronica Foster.
At the centre of the cross is an artist’s note, honouring the one million Canadian women who built the machines and armaments that won World War II.
“They have never pulled the trigger that fired the bullet but they made the trigger and the made the bullet that gave our soldiers the power they needed to win the war.”
Mr. Large thanked Adam Busscher of Picton Home Hardware and former employer French Brothers Roofing for donating materials needed for the project. Vice President Adam Doran said the company was thrilled to support Mr. Large’s art.
“We’re very proud of what Gil has been doing and any time we can support him and honour Canada’s veterans, we are happy to do so. We are just a small piece in this. He’s a very talented craftsman.”
“We’ve reached out to the people at the War Museum in Ottawa and offered it to their collection focussed on women,” Mr. Large noted. “Anything I can do to honour the men and women who served Canada in the war, I want to see them remembered.”
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