Around the entrance archway are "The Sword of Victory"—a bas-relief above the opening—and two stone lions by Pearson, the modeller Charles Adamson, and the sculptor Cléophas Soucy, each bearing a shield; the shield to the left bears the "Dragon of Destruction" and the date "1914", while that on the right shows the "Dove of Peace" perched on a crown and the date "1918". Within the tympanum of the antechamber's arch is the sculpted work by Pearson and Soucy, "The Tunnellers' Friends", which shows representations of animals that served during the war: reindeer, pack mules, carrier pigeons, horses, dogs, canaries, and mice, all above the inscription "THE TUNNELLERS’ FRIENDS, THE HUMBLE BEASTS THAT SERVED AND DIED". Around the archivolt at the other end of the entrance passage are sculpted animals and insects, such as beetles, spiders, lizards, butterflies, rats, hares, bats, birds, frogs, and bees; John Pearson stated that these were to represent the flora and fauna of Canada. The inscription around this arch is an excerpt from John Ceredigion Jones' poem "The Returning Man": "ALL'S WELL FOR OVER THERE AMONG HIS PEERS A HAPPY WARRIOR SLEEPS".