Long completion times and

The price for the memorial of the commission was made in 1908 on the condition that the work would be completed by 1912. Allward was helped by his assistant studio, Emanuel Otto Hahn (1881-1957), another remarkable sculptor who worked on the monument with him until 1912, when Hahn left for the Ontario College of Art, eventually directing his sculpture department and become the president of the Sculptors Society of Canada. The project took place slowly, in part due to concurrent work Allward on several other committees at the same time, including the War Memorial in South Africa, a monument erected in GTA. For various other reasons the memorial was not completed until 1917, with the First World War, the shortage of transport equipment limitations and create delays.


The Brantford monument was finally unveiled by rain Wednesday, October 24, 1917 by Victor Cavendish, Duke of Devonshire,  then Governor General of Canada, before an audience of thousands. He arrived in the city by train, with the Lieutenant Governor of Ontario, Sir John Hendrie, Hon. Senator Robertson Privy Council, the Hon. WD McPherson of the Government of Ontario and other notables. They were greeted by a chorus of children, honor guards, the band of the 125th (Brantford) Battalion and chime Grace Anglican church located just a few dozen meters from the memorial. Also present were in full war regalia AR Hill was head of the tribes of the Six Nations of the Grand River, where Bell, on his arrival in Canada, had learned to make a Mohawk war dance.



As a holiday was declared for the unveiling, the normal activities of the city were closed for the entire day. After the governor general ended his speech in front of the monument and unveiled his guys, he went into the old town Opera because of the rain, with a large number of the crowd. The ceremony continued inside with Bell addressed the audience again twice to the opera and during an official reception at the House Kerby with JAD McCurdy, partner of Bell's Aerial Experiment Association, and Gilbert Grosvenor, chairman of the National Geographic Society, and others.

Alexander Graham Bell, in his speech, reminded participants that "Brantford is just claiming the invention of the telephone here ... [Was] designed to Brantford in 1874 and born in Boston in 1875 ", and later addressing the Duke, said:" ... on behalf of the Association to submit to His ... Excellence [with] a phone money ... I hope that in use, it will be recalled that the phone from Brantford and the first remote transmission was made between Brantford and Paris. "

In appreciation for the people of Brantford, Bell's wife, Mabel Hubbard Bell, contributed $ 500 (about $ 8,900 in current dollars) to support fund of the city for his soldiers fought Europe.