On Sunday 25th September 2005 I attended the unveiling of the Wallace Mural on Wallace Street of Wallaceburg, Ontario, Canada. This was to commemorate the 700th anniversary of his death and as Wallaceburg is named after him this was most appropriate. I am told this is the only mural to William Wallace in North America. The Rotary club and others in the town raised the money for this mural and here are the pictures I took of the event...

The mural is on the side wall of the Meat Market and I found Sally and the Wallace folk on my arrival at the event

And here is the mural with Sally and the Wallaceburg Town Crier in front of it

And this is Chip, the Mayor, who told me he is a Gordon and that in 1898 his grandfather was elected Mayor of Wallaceburg and he was elected Mayor 100 years later in 1998

On the left is the Mayor with his grand-daughter showing that several generations were in attendance. On the right is the shield that will go up with the mural. Actually later in the day the mural will be hung much higher on the wall which will be its permanent position and it was being agreed that they will put up a light sensitive light so that the mural will be illuminated at night

And on the far right is one of the two artists that did the mural

And on the right is the other artist

And here are the artists, Cindy Baxter and Wes Siddall, and they kindly let me into a wee secret. You'll note the Scotsman showing a bare bum to the English in the mural on the right. Likely most people will not notice it once it's been hung higher on the wall. Nice one folks! :-)

Just so you get an idea of where to look :-)

And now the ceremony starts with the Town Crier ringing us in

The Town Crier addresses the crowd to start the event

Sally then gives some background to the event

Chip, the Mayor, tells us a bit more about how it all happened

The Lady from the Wallace Society tells us of a trip to see Wallace places in England and Scotland and finishes with a very emotional poem that was written for the 700th anniversary

Crowd scenes of young and old and all ages in between

The owner of the meat market, whose wall is being used for the  mural gives us a wee talk and also tells us that he will be painting the wall to show the mural off and arranging for a light sensitive light that will illuminate the mural at night

The representative of the Ontario Trillium Foundation tells us about the fund raising

Cindy Baxter tells us a little about the painting of the mural

Wes Siddall gives his thoughts on the mural

And at the end of the ceremony the pipes played and more photo opportunities for the local press

And a wee lass wondering where everyone has gone :-)

And a wee snack of coffee, water and shortbread biscuits

And just to show I was there I got my picture taken :-)