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Standing alone amidst a scene of utter desolation and ruin, surrounded by several blocks of charred remnants of brick walls and smoking basements littered with twisted frames of beds and stoves and safes and other ironwork of various descriptions, the War Memorial clock tower of Wainwright remains intact except that the master clock of the big timepiece that graces its masonary was burned in the blaze that destroyed the town’s business premises.
Its bronze tablet bears witness to its purpose, and even the roaring flames by which it was surrounded on Sunday for several hours left it unscathed.
Bearing testimony to the terrible catastrophe it had witnessed, the tower with its silent and still clock keeps watch over the most desolate scene it is possible to imagine. But it still will keep the memory of the score or more of heroes who gave their lives in the Great War, and who before that greater conflagration that set a world in flames made their homes in Wainwright, fresh in the community. Other losses were heavy, but there is a feeling of relief in the community that the clock tower erected as a war memorial by the members of Walter Musson Chapter of the I. O. D. E. should not have perished in the flames.
As a fitting climax to the awful catastrophe, early on Monday Mrs. H. M. Conquest, of Athabasca drove down from Edmonton whith Mr. W. Plawink (these representing the Red Cross Society) with offers of every assistance they could render although this, while greatly appreciated, was not found necessary.