Hudson’s Bay gifts war memorials to TD Bank, Royal Canadian Legion branches
Written by The Canadian Press on November 12, 2025
TORONTO — Hudson’s Bay has gifted several war memorials from its former stores to the Royal Canadian Legion and TD Bank Group.
Franco Perugini, a senior vice-president of real estate and legal at the defunct retailer, says memorial plaques in HBC’s Calgary, Winnipeg and Vancouver stores were all donated to local branches of the Royal Canadian Legion.
TD Bank is the recipient of another memorial that commemorates Simpsons employees who died in the Second World War. Simpsons is a defunct department store HBC bought in 1978.
The bank’s Front Street branch in Toronto where the memorial is now located is situated where the founder of Simpsons opened a warehouse in 1905 for a mail-order business.
The memorial was previously displayed by a bank of elevators at HBC’s Toronto flagship store on Queen Street, where it was flanked by Canadian flags and a wreath of poppies.
When the retailer collapsed earlier this year and closed all of its stores, lawyer E. Patrick Shea started advocating for the preservation of HBC’s memorials.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 12, 2025.
Tara Deschamps, The Canadian Press