Excerpted from the City of New Westminster's Website:
The Columbia Detachment of Royal Engineers founded, surveyed, and laid out the City of New Westminster and were instrumental in laying the foundations for the law and order, communication routes, government service and more during 1859 - 1863.
To honour the Royal Engineers role in establishing New Westminster, in 1865, this replica Sergeant Major Soldier, adorned with his distinctive scarlet tunic, blue trousers with red stripes and gold-trimmed pill box hat oversees the Mighty Fraser River where the first soldiers set ashore.
Standing at attention at 9.75 meters, on size 60 E27 boots, and weighing 4,540 kilograms, this ‘Royal Engineer’ is distinguished in 2002 by the Guinness Book of World Records as the World’s Tallest Tin Soldier. Built as a labour of love by the Sheet Metal Workers International Association and the BC Sheet Metal Association, the Soldier was erected on November 29, 2000 outside the Royal Westminster Regiment and then relocated to its present location on February 14, 2002.
Within the heart of the Tin Soldier resides a time capsule that will be opened in 2025 and provide a new generation of New Westminster residents with a unique taste of local history.