Robert Burns Memorial (Montreal)

Robert Burns Memorial

View from western side of the Square. Tribute to Robert Burns in the foreground, Boer War Memorial in behind and the Sun Life Building in the background
Coordinates
Location	Dorchester Square
Designer	G. A. Lawson
Material	bronze, pink granite
Height	4.95 metres (16.2 ft)
Opening date	October 18, 1930
Dedicated to	Robert Burns

The Robert Burns Memorial is a monument of sculptor G. A. Lawson located at Dorchester Square in Downtown Montreal.

Overview

The memorial to the Scottish poet Robert Burns, a tribute to Montréal's Scottish industrialists and financiers, represents the socially conscious and refined romantic ideal of the community during the High Victorian Era. The memorial by G. A. Lawson stands at the western entrance of Square Dorchester. Burns looks out towards the infinite expanse of Western Canada, opened up by the rail and finance managed by the elites of the community.

The statue was a reproduction of the one which stands in Ayr, near Burns’ birthplace, considered to be one of the finest depictions of Scotland's national poet.

The memorial was unveiled in the city’s downtown Dominion Square on October 18, 1930, a cold and rainy day. The speeches made that day emphasised that its erection was not only in honour of Burns's genius, but also to commemorate the impact of Scots on Montreal’s development.

On July 8, 2009, the official first shovelful of dirt was lifted in the $23-million project to restore Dorchester Square and Place du Canada at 10 a.m. near the Boer War Memorial monument.

The original memorial by G. A. Lawson was inaugurated in Ayr, in 1892. Replicas of Lawson's memorial were also erected in Melbourne on 23 January 1904, Detroit on 23 July 1921, Vancouver on 25 August 1928, and Winnipeg in 1936.

See also

• List of Robert Burns memorials

Gallery

• Statue of Robert Burns.JPG

  Close-up

• 

  Robert Burns and the Sun Life Building