The Lord Beaverbrook initiated, in partnership with the government, the Canadian War Memorial Fund (CWMF) in April 1918 with the purpose of "perpetuating the memory of what Canada has accomplished in this war"[23] through paintings, photographs, and the erection of memorials. An early proposal in 1919 was a memorial hall in Ottawa, to act as a social centre for between 2,000 and 4,000 people as well as a monument to the Canadians who served in the Great War. It did not grow past the concept stage, but, an idea from the CWMF for a memorial building did progress to the detail design phase.