The statue of a man yielding an axe on horseback has a new plaque commemorating a battle which secured Scotland’s independence and the connection between Calgary and the European nation.
On Sunday afternoon, members of the Calgary Burns Club gathered at the base of the Robert the Bruce statue, situated on a hill overlooking 14 St. N.W. near the Alberta College of Art and Design, for the unveiling of the addition to the effigy.
“The Battle of Bannockburn was one of the final installments of Scotland’s trying to get independence over England,” explains Ian Denness of the Calgary Burns Club. “(Robert the Bruce) was severely outnumbered, by three to one, by Edward the Second’s army but was able, through use of some very clever tactics, to defeat the English.”
Calgary’s Eric L. Harvie, a lawyer, philanthropist and the founder of the Glenbow Museum, was instrumental in the funding of a Robert the Bruce statue at the site of the Battle of Bannockburn near Stirling, Scotland. At Harvie’s insistence, an identical statue was erected in Calgary.
“We have this unique linkage between Calgary and Scotland,” “The name Calgary is derived from a wee town on the Isle of Mull and obviously Eric Harvie thought it was appropriate to provide that linkage in, I was going to say in a cast iron way but the statue is actually made of bronze, so in a bronze way.”
The Harvie family, including Eric Harvie’s grandchildren, participated in Sunday’s ceremony.
Robert the Bruce’s reign as King of Scots lasted from 1306 until 1329.
