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The Newfoundlanders & the Somme.
Information and photographs from
Graham Buxton
Nottinghamshire Branch
Newfoundland Memorial Park was purchased by the Dominion of
Newfoundland after the First World War. It was named after the Royal
Newfoundland Regiment, which had provided one battalion of 800 men to
serve with the British and Commonwealth Armies.
Now part of Canada, Newfoundland was at the time a British colony, and
the Regiment troops actually raised their own funds to get to France, where
most of them died.
Its tragic part in the action of 1st July 1916 is remembered through this
memorial park.
Newfoundland purchased this land in 1921, and first it and then the
Canadian government (after 1949) have maintained it since as a memorial.
It was officially opened in 1925, by Earl Haig. In 1997 it was designated a
Canadian National Historic Site. The statue of the Caribou was chosen for
the Memorial, as it was the symbol of the Newfoundland Regiment.
There is a great deal to see within the park, including memorials and
cemeteries as well as the preserved trench lines.
There is also a visitor’s centre with information on the Newfoundlanders
and also a shop and toilets.
The caribou was chosen as
the symbol for memorials to
the Newfoundlanders, on the
Western Front.
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POLICE WORLD
Vol 61 No. 3, 2016
Article