MCKnight Centennial
Trench Legacy
The McKnight Centennial Trench Project was conceived in the summer of 2014 to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the WWI, also known as the Great War. We wanted to honour Canada’s role during its key participation years – 1915 to 1918. The McKnight Trench was named in honour of Lt. Augustus McKnight, a resident of Port Moody, and a Canadian Engineer who was killed in Belgium in August 1916.
There were several underlying causes of the First World War or Great War as many called it. Some of these causes were political, territorial, and economic conflicts among the great European powers in the four decades leading up to the war.
The trigger for the war was the June 28, 1914, assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, who was heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary. His wife Sophie, Duchess of Hohenberg, was also assassinated. They were killed by a Serbian nationalist. An escalation of threats and mobilization orders followed the incident leading to the outbreak of the First World War. The outbreak pitted Germany, Austria-Hungary, and the Ottoman Empire (the so-called Central Powers) against Great Britain, France, Russia, Italy, and Japan (the Allied Powers). The war started on August 4, 1914 and would continue for four years until November 11, 1918. The scale of the First World War was unprecedented. Huge armies and weapons such as machine guns and artillery were on a scale never seen before in war. An estimated 20 million civilians were killed and an additional 9 million in uniform were killed.
CONTENTS PAGE
Chapter 1 The Beginning of the Project
Chapter 2 Who was Augustus McKnight
Chapter 3 Expanding the Trench
Chapter 4 Plane Soars into Museum
Chapter 5 Special Exhibitions
Chapter 6 Events
Chapter 7 Great War Talk Series
Chapter 8 Re-enactments
Chapter 9 Interviews and Student film
Chapter 10 Programs
Chapter 11 Brief History of WW1
Chapter 12 Closing of the Trench
Chapter 13 Volunteers and Sponsors
