Mount Royal Cemetery (French:Cimetière Mont-Royal) is a 165-acre (67 ha) terraced cemetery on the north slope ofMount Royal in the borough ofOutremont inMontreal,Quebec, Canada. It opened in 1852. Temple Emanu-El Cemetery, aReform Judaism burial ground, is within the Mount Royal grounds. The burial ground shares the mountain with the much larger adjacentRoman Catholic cemetery,Notre Dame des Neiges Cemetery, and theShaar Hashomayim Cemetery, anAshkenazi Jewish cemetery. Mount Royal Cemetery is bordered on the southeast byMount Royal Park, on the west by Notre-Dame-des-Neiges Cemetery, and on the north by Shaar Hashomayim Cemetery. It is known for its stunning views, birdwatching, cheery mix of old and new graves, meticulous upkeep, and diversity of trees. In the springtime, the Lilac Knoll section is flush with hydrangeas, and autumn leaf walking tours are frequent.
Although the cemetery isnon-denominational today, it continues to be governed by its original charter, with a board of trustees representing the foundingProtestant denominations. The cemetery is a privatenon-profit organization. While most sections of the cemetery are mixed, there are ‘neighbourhoods’ suitable for different communities and their burial needs, with rich histories.
Burial rights have always been offered in perpetuity, with the commitment that no graves would ever be reused or abandoned. The founding charter stipulates that all profits should be entirely devoted to the embellishment and improvement of the property. Mount Royal Cemetery is still in operation, and even the older portions of the cemetery have some burial sites available, although casket-sized graves are increasingly in short supply.[2]
The firstcrematory in Canada was built bySir Andrew Taylor in 1901 on the eastern side of the Mount Royal Cemetery property with funds donated by SirWilliam Christopher Macdonald, a well-known tobaccotycoon and greatphilanthropist. This building is the oldest of its kind in the country and it remained the only crematorium inQuebec until 1975. The first cremation took place on April 18, 1902.
Built with Montreal limestone, the original building had achapel, a room for the cremation chambers, a large winter storage vault and a conservatory filled with exotic plants. In the 1950s, for maintenance reasons, the conservatory was demolished but the original chapel, on the left of the building, is still intact with a handmade mosaic floor and casket-door that lowers to the crematorium and prep rooms beneath. The gatehouse to the left of the Chemin de la Forêt entrance, as well as the cemetery office, are some of the original structures — waiting attendants used to wait in the gatehouse for their carriages during the winter.[2]
The cemetery contains 459war graves of Commonwealth service personnel, 276 from World War I and 183 from World War II, most of which form two War Plots in Section G. A Cross of Sacrifice stands on the boundary with Notre-Dame-des-Neiges Cemetery.[3]
Military graves at Mount Royal did not take significance until World War I, when Canada lost over 60 000 soldiers. After this event, the population of the city started taking public memory more seriously, and gave an entire section of the cemetery to war veterans and fallen soldiers.[4]
Colonel W. J. B. MacLeod Moore (born Kildare (Ireland), January 14, 1810, died Prescott (Ontario), September 10, 1890), founder of Masonic Knights Templar in Canada and Societas Roscruciana in Anglia (Canada)
Howie Morenz (1902–1937), Hall of Fame ice hockey player
Henry Morgan (1819–1893), opened first department store in Canada
^Young, Brian with photographs by Geoffrey James. Respectable Burial: Montreal’s Mount Royal Cemetery. Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2003.
