Cemetary

No one knows for sure when Regina 's City Cemetery was set aside for use. The earliest tombstone dates from 1882 but at that time the cemetery, which is located on the north-west corner of Broad Street and Fourth Avenue , would have been many miles from the settlement of Regina , which at the time was centred where downtown Regina now stands. It is reported that the first burial at the City Cemetery took place in 1882, before the 1883 incorporation of the cemetery. David Lindsay, the two-year old son of W.C. Lindsay, is purported to be the first interment at the cemetery, although no documentation exists to back up this claim. (A second plot of land was set aside in the 1940s for a second cemetery. That land is now Riverside Cemetery .)

Regardless of its age, the City Cemetery is the final resting place for many of Regina 's early pioneers and local luminaries. Among the more interesting gravesites at the City Cemetery is the Darke Mausoleum. Francis Darke was Regina 's youngest mayor. He was also a local businessman who got his start in the meat industry but who became a real estate tycoon in his later years. He donated the money to build Darke Hall on the grounds of what was then Regina College and also donated the Darke Memorial Chimes to what is now the Knox Metropolitan United Church . The Darke Mausoleum, which houses all of the Darke family members, is the only mausoleum in Regina and is an interesting focal point within the cemetery, although vandals have done damage to the structure in recent years.

Another interesting grave belongs to Detective Charles Rait Millar, the police officer who was killed by strikers during the Regina Riot of 1935.

The graves of three members of the McDougall family, as well as the grave of Mary (McIntyre) Shaw, serve as a reminder of the devastating damage caused by the 1912 Regina cyclone. Shaw had been strolling through Victoria Park when the storm hit. She was rushed to the Regina General Hospital , where she died of her injuries. The McDougall family's veranda roof collapsed during the storm, pinning father James and his four-year old daughter Ida. Both died of their injuries later that night at the Grey Nuns Hospital . Barbara, James' eight-year old daughter, died several days later of her injuries.

The centrepiece, literally, of the City Cemetery is the Soldiers' Plot. The Soldiers' Plot, also known as the Soldiers' Cemetery, sits in the middle of the 42.85-acre cemetery. The Soldiers' Plot came about due to the tireless work of Lieutenant Colonel James McAra, who was later to be mayor of Regina . McAra believed that no soldier should lie in obscurity. To this end, in 1920 he convinced City Council to set aside a plot of land for soldiers and helped to raise funds to build a cenotaph to serve as a focal point for the plot. Sir Reginald Bloomfield designed the Cross of Sacrifice, as the cenotaph is known. The monument was donated by the Imperial War Graves Commission. The plot is flanked by two field guns, which were captured from the German Army in World War I. Tombstones in this plot are arranged symmetrically and feature the name, rank, serial number, unit, age, and date of death of each soldier. The grounds around the Soldiers' Plot are immaculately landscaped and serve as one of the most impressive military burial grounds in Canada .