Project to honor WWI vets gets funding boost
WOONSOCKET – The United Veterans Council of Woonsocket (UVC) on Thursday stepped forward to put the finishing touches on a project remembering city residents who fought and gave their lives during World War I just in time for the 100th anniversary of the Armistice ending the all consuming conflict.
The city veterans organization handed over a check for $1,163 that will fund the installation of signposts carrying the signs denoting 10 city intersections and the entrance to a city park as memorial squares to 11 local service members included among the 78 city residents who gave their lives during World War I.
The squares were identified by Roger Beaudry of the American-French Genealogical Society last year at the end of a research project he con- ducted to find information on the over 2,000 local residents who went to serve in World War I, a portion of more than 25,000 Rhode Island residents serving in the war.
The signs for the memorial squares have already been prepared and now with the help of the UVC, Beaudry will see them installed at locations in the city that were designated as Memorial Squares in 1920.
“The Squares were selected by the city but we don’t know if there were ever any signs put up,” Beaudry said Thursday evening.
People in the city may drive through those locations today but think of them by their common names, Depot Square at Main Street, High Street, and Clinton Street, or Market Square at South Main, Main and Bernon streets, for example, but not be aware that Depot is also 1st Lt. Harold F. Flynn Memorial Square and
Market Square Pvt. Andrew F. Young Memorial Square.
UVC President Marvin Ludwig said the UVC was giving Beaudry’s project the $1,163 contribution “for the purpose of installing signs in memory of our World War I soldiers who were lost.”
In addition to the already designated 10 city memorial squares, the project will also put a new sign at Dunn Park off Mason and Asylum streets that local residents might not know is also named for a local resident lost to World War I.
The park is officially named for Edna G. Dunn, a Navy yeowoman 2c, who died in service on Jan. 9, 1919.
A memorial service for the city’s World War I ser-
vice members was held at the American-French Genealogical Society headquarters at 78 Earle St. last year and some of service members’ descendants were in attendance along with city officials, U.S. Representative David N. Cicilline, Matthew McCoy of the Rhode Island World War I Centennial Commission, and Amandine Lebas, Deputy Consul General of France in Boston.
Ludwig said he was assured by Linda Plays, the city’s director of Human Services, that the signs will be installed at the memorial square locations in time for the 100th anniversary of the end of World War I on Nov. 11, Veterans Day.
“I will be meeting with her next week to plan the unveiling ceremony,” Ludwig said.
The unveiling ceremony will be held at one of the memorial squares, a site still to
be determined, and the rest of the signs will be uncovered at their respective locations at the same time, he noted.
World War I began on July 28, 1914, and pitted Germany and its Central Powers against France and Great Britain and the Allied Powers. The United States entered the war on the side of the Allied Powers on April 6, 1917, and helped to turn the tide of the conflict by 1918. The war ended with the signing of the Armistice at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918.
Woonsocket World War I Memorial Squares
• Pvt. Andrew F. Young Memorial Square, killed in action, Sept. 12, 1918. Intersection of Main Street, Arnold, Bernon and South Main streets, formerly Market Square.
• Pvt. Joseph O. Norman-
din Memorial Square, killed in action, Nov. 4, 1918. Intersection of Front and Court streets, formerly Court Square.
• Pvt. Arthur Curtis Memorial Square, killed in action, July 18, 1918. Intersection of Blackstone Street and Harris Avenue, formerly Randall Square.
• Pvt. Joseph R. Coutu Memorial Square, killed in action, August 29, 1918. Intersection of Greene and Bernon streets.
• Pvt. Donatien Belhumeur Memorial Square, killed in action, Aug. 29, 1918. Intersection of Social and Rathbun streets, formerly Social Corner.
• Pvt. Giovanni Filice Memorial Square, killed in action, Oct. 4, 1918. Intersection of Social Street and Diamond Hill Road.
• Corp. Lionel O. Roberge Memorial Square, died in ser-
vice, Oct. 7, 1918. Intersection of Knight, Cottage and Logee streets.
• Pvt. Alberic C. Riendeau Memorial Square, killed in action July 5, 1918. Intersection of Providence Street and Smithfield Road, formerly Union Square.
• Pvt. William Jolicoeur Memorial Square, died of wounds, Oct. 3, 1918. Intersection of Hamlet Avenue, Cumberland Street and Cumberland Hill Road.
• 1st Lt. Harold F. Flynn Memorial Square, killed in action, Nov. 9, 1918. Intersection of Court, High, Main and Clinton streets, formerly Depot Square.
• Yeowoman 2c Edna C. Dunn Memorial Park, died in service, Jan. 9, 1919. Entrance to Edna G. Dunn Memorial Park.