Dieppe Gardens

The land was long used for docking by the Detroit-Windsor ferry operations and other businesses. In the late 1950s the City of Windsor bought and demolished the buildings to create a major riverfront park. The garden was dedicated on 28 June 1959 and named for the Dieppe Raid of 19 August 1942, in which the Essex Scottish Regiment, with other units of the 2nd Canadian Division, landed at Dieppe. Lieutenant Colonel F. K. Jasperson, the regiment's commanding officer during the raid, unveiled the Service Personnel Monument at the dedication. That monument, topped with a Silver Cross, was placed by mothers whose sons died in the Second World War. Veterans Affairs Canada has a conflicting entry referring to dedication to all Canadian veterans in 1966, which may reflect a later event. Municipal records summarised by the regiment's museum add that work on the site continued until 1971 and that the park has also been known as Civic Centre Park and Gateway Park.

The Essex Scottish was raised in 1885 as the 21st Essex Battalion of Infantry, took its present name in 1927 and was headquartered in Windsor. On 19 August 1942, in Operation Jubilee, the regiment was assigned to Red Beach near the harbour. Sources give its strength as about 553 men. Wikipedia and regimental accounts agree that about 121 died and roughly 382 became prisoners, while sources differ on how many returned to England, with figures from 49 to 53 cited. Across the whole raid, Wikipedia reports that 3,623 of the 6,086 men who landed were killed, wounded or captured within about ten hours, although casualty totals vary by source.

Veterans Affairs Canada's inventory lists a Pray for Peace monument raised by the Knights of Columbus of Ontario around the centennial year, a Naval Monument, a memorial to Pipe Major Jock Copland, an Eternal Flame, an RCAF memorial, a Red Beach memorial and a Korea Veterans memorial. The regiment's museum describes the Pray for Peace piece as a three-column granite statue given in 1967. The RCAF memorial, by local sculptors Laura and Mark Williams, uses bronze, stainless steel and cement and shows etched pilots with models of a Hurricane, a Spitfire and a Lancaster.

Windsor community members raised money for a monument in Dieppe, France, dedicated on 19 August 2006 to the Windsor-based Essex and Kent Scottish Regiment reservists who took part in the raid. City officials approved a duplicate for Dieppe Gardens in January 2010, and it was unveiled on 19 August 2010 so that people unable to travel to France could see it locally. Its design, by Rory O'Connor, is said to reflect the hour of 1:00 pm when the regiment was ordered to leave Red Beach, and each 19 August sunlight is cast through a maple leaf on the monument onto a stainless-steel plaque. One ton of beach stones from Dieppe was installed in the memorial. The Essex and Kent Scottish Regiment has held a service at the site each August.

Dieppe Gardens lies near Civic Terrace and Festival Plaza. Windsor's riverfront parks stretch roughly 5 kilometres from the Ambassador Bridge to the Hiram Walker distillery, and the western portion hosts the Windsor Sculpture Park with more than 30 large-scale sculptures. A riverfront trail connects these parks.

Visitors find landscaped gardens, memorials and benches facing the river and the Detroit skyline. The park is a quiet place for reflection, and it hosts Remembrance gatherings, though events vary so check the City of Windsor. Windsor's annual fireworks over the Detroit River, usually the last Monday in June, are visible from the riverfront and draw crowds to both sides of the river.

• Allow time to read the monument inscriptions.
• Mornings are quieter, and the skyline is clear on bright days.
• On a private tour, a driver can drop you at the park and continue along the riverfront trail to the Sculpture Park with ease.