Firemen's Memorial (Boston)


Firemen’s Memorial is a statue located in Forest Hills Cemetery, Jamaica Plain, Boston. The monument was created by John A. Wilson in 1909. Each year on the second Sunday in June, memorial services sponsored by the Charitable Association of the Boston Fire Department are held at the Firemen's Memorial at Forest Hills Cemetery in order to pay tribute to deceased members so they would be assured of a decent and final resting place and they would not necessarily end up in Pauper's Field.
On a lofty granite base a larger-than-life fireman in bronze, attired for service but in a moment of contemplation. On each side of the pedestal were set bronze plaques, 3 ft. by 4 ft., depicting the spirit of Louis Maurer's famous series of prints entitled "The Life of a Firemen". Shown in vivid bas-relief were horse-powered equipment and men en route to their duty. The plaque on the rear of the statue pictures a nineteenth-century pumper as it would have looked between fires in the firehouse with no horses, men, or background. The memorial was dedicated in grand style on June 14, 1909. On that day, set aside in all the state for past firemen, the memorial was dedicated in a ceremony partially presided over by John F. Fitzgerald, grandfather of John F. Kennedy and former mayor of Boston.

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