The secrets contained inside the World’s Largest Tin Soldier will soon be revealed.
The 32-foot tall (9.75-metre) and 10,000-pound (4,505-kilogram) tin soldier was erected outside the Royal Westminster Regiment in November 2000 as part of the nine-day Festival of Trees charity event.
In February 2001, it was transported on a flatbed truck to its current home on New Westminster’s waterfront; a time capsule placed inside during the Feb. 14, 2000 dedication ceremony was set to be unsealed on Feb. 14, 2025.
“The long-awaited time capsule in the tin soldier is going to be opened in the city,” said Coun. Ruby Campbell. “Lots of partners are doing some events around it.”
The tin soldier time capsule opening event is on Friday, Feb. 14 from 4 to 8 p.m. at 810 Quayside Dr. The time capsule will be opened at 5 p.m., and the retrieved items will be placed on display inside Fraser River Discovery Centre until the event wraps up at 8 p.m.
“I hope people will come down and appreciate the waterfront but also have an opportunity to see what's inside the time capsule,” Campbell said.
According to Record archives, one of the items placed inside the time capsule was a tape recording of kids answering questions.
At its Dec. 16 meeting, council unanimously approved Campbell’s motion to have staff report back with a plan and budget to host a tin soldier time capsule opening on Feb. 14, 2025.
The City of New Westminster has partnered with local groups and businesses on this week’s time capsule celebration, including Arts New West, New West Family Place, River Market, the Fraser River Discovery Centre, Tourism New West, the Downtown New Westminster BIA and its member businesses, and people involved in the creation of the World's Largest Tin Soldier. The outdoor event includes a children’s activity and craft, as well as free hot beverages.
Tiffany Stone, author of the book Tall Tale: The True Story of the World's Largest Tin Soldier, will be doing book readings at Kinder Books in River Market.
As the sun sets, attendees are encouraged to look to the tin soldier, where a Coast Salish welcome figure created by Kwantlen artist Brandon Gabriel will be projected onto the tin soldier.
How it started
Wayne Wright, who would go on to become New Westminster’s mayor, and Cheryl Gauld helped spearhead the World’s Largest Tin Soldier project for the Royal City Christmas Festival, a fundraiser for the Simon Fraser Society for Community Living (now known as Kinsight), which supported children and adults with special needs.
The soldier was deemed to be a “labour of love” by the many local unions, businesses and individuals who donated to the project.
“The gold heart on the soldier represents the spirit of kindness towards others,” Gauld told the Record in 2014.
Wright not only oversaw production of the solider but volunteered on many facets of the project. That included helping with the painting and paying for the publication of the book about the project.
“It was a fun project and is a recognized attraction for our city,” Wright said in a statement to the Record. “The items in the capsule were from families and children who came to the dedication ceremony. We specifically made it only 25 years to opening in hopes that the children putting in items would return with their children when the capsule was opened.”
In 2002, the New West attraction was listed as the World’s Largest Tin Soldier in the Guinness Book of World Records.
“It was part of remembering our Royal City heritage and respect for our city founders,” said Wright, who is out of town and unable to attend the event. “The soldier was a copy from the mural in our Armoury. It’s been built for 100 yeas, so is still a young man!”
Has New West had other time capsules?
The World’s Largest Tin Solider is not the only time capsule to be compiled in New Westminster. Record archives detail some of the other time capsules that have been done in New West through the years:
- A time capsule that was sealed on Feb. 14, 1989, as part of the opening celebrations for the Inn at the Quay was intended to be opened 25 years later (on Feb. 14, 2014). That time capsule, however, remained sealed until the fall of 2018, after being taken off the wall during a 2009 renovation and placed in storage. When opened, it contained notes from some of the city’s prominent business people and citizens who predicted what New Westminster would be like in 25 years. You can read about it here.
- As part of a $7.67-million expansion and improvement project to the Queensborough Community Centre in 2012, the centre invited community members to bring items for a time capsule being compiled in honour of the centre's history. In addition to contributing memorabilia such as photos, community members were asked to share memories about times at the centre and what it means to them.
- As part of the City of New Westminster's 150th anniversary celebrations in 2009, the New Westminster Museum and Archives hosted a display of artifacts from the city's first 10 years — and invited community members to contribute a memento to a time capsule that was set to be sealed until 2059.
- Century House celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2008 with a variety of events and projects, including the compilation of a time capsule.
- The class of 1912 at Duke of Connaught High School, which was once located on the site where New Westminster City Hall now sits, planted a time capsule on the site in 1912. Dug up in 1955 when the building was demolished, the copper box revealed contents including textbooks, the student newspaper called The Pharos, coins, and two local newspapers.
