All Sappers RCE Carillon Back in Service after a Long Silence

Saint Luke's Chapel at CFB Gagetown

At 1020 hrs on 15 April 2021, the Carillon at St Luke’s Chapel, Base Gagetown, chimed for the first time in over three years.  It had been repaired thanks to a Museum Development Fund Grant from the Directorate of History and Heritage.

The original All Sappers Memorial Carillon was a Schulmrtich Coronation Carillon that had been installed in the All Sappers Chapel at Camp Chilliwack in 1957, the 50th anniversary of the Royal Canadian School of Military Engineering.  In 1988, the original system was replaced with a Maas-Rove Carillon system.

When the Canadian Forces School of Military was moved from Chilliwack to Gagetown in 1997, many of the heritage assets of the Canadian Military Engineers were moved with it under the care of the Canadian Military Engineers Museum. Among them was the carillon system that the Royal Canadian Engineers had installed in All Sappers Chapel.

To celebrate the Centennial of the creation of the Canadian Engineers, the system was upgraded and rededicated in 2003. For over sixty years, an All Sappers Memorial Carillon had called worshipers to service and rung the hours at both Chilliwack and Gagetown until it fell silent due to needed repairs. The search for a technician who could repair it was successful and the clock mechanism was successfully repaired and the system was returned to service. The Chaplains and the Museum are now looking at a further upgrade to a fully digital system that will allow more flexibility in what music and chimes can be played through the system.