Vimy oak a symbol of park transformation into battle memorial
Nearly a century after the McKeough Family donated the two-acre site where McKeough Park is located in Chatham, a family member is working to give it a new purpose.
Stewart McKeough, who is days away from turning 97, took the initiative to obtain a Vimy oak. The tree comes from one of the acorns of an English oak tree that was partially buried on the Vimy Ridge battlefield.
Lt. Leslie Miller, of Scarborough, gathered up a handful of the acorns and sent them back to Canada after serving with the Canadian Expeditionary Force, giving his family instructions to plant them on the family farm.
This is the second Vimy oak to be planted in Chatham. The first was planted a year ago at the Col. E.M. Ansel Armoury in Chatham. “That gave me the idea, so I applied for it and we got it,” McKeough said.
McKeough Park is located on a section of the original 15-acre home site the McKeough family acquired when they first arrived in Chatham in 1847, McKeough said. He said his great-uncle Frank McKeough gave the land to the City of Chatham in 1924 to establish a park for the enjoyment of children.
Over the years, the McKeough family donated a swimming pool and tennis courts, which also doubled as a public ice rink in the winter. These facilities have since been removed from the park. McKeough said there was a time when more children lived near the park and used it.
But that changed as the boundaries of Chatham expanded north and south and more children now live farther away from the park, he added.
Although the park served its original purpose, “Its time is over and it needs a new direction,” McKeough said.
Noting several members of the McKeough family served overseas in the First World War and Second World War, including himself, he said.
“I think the new reason for the park to exist is Vimy Ridge and telling the story.”
He believes his family would agree this important history “needs to be retold and retold a thousand times and then a thousand times again.” McKeough has already worked on creating a plaque that tells the story of the Battle of Vimy Ridge, which saw 10,600 casualties during the four-day battle from April 9 to April 12, 1917.
The battle in northern France is considered one of the defining events in the history of Canada as a nation, when Canadian troops overcame great odds to capture the ridge after Allied troops had struggled and failed.
The plaque will detail how the Canadian government transplanted 11,285 trees at the 290acre Vimy Ridge Memorial site, which is equal to the number of Canadian soldiers who gave their lives fighting in France during the First World War.
The names of these soldiers, which are inscribed on the Vimy Ridge Memorial, include McKeough’s uncle, Major William Stewart McKeough, who was killed in action on Sept. 15, 1916, during the Battle of the Somme. McKeough also sees another educational purpose for the park: teaching people about nature. He has already begun this by working with Chatham-Kent’s horticultural department to have 40 Carolinian trees planted in the park, along with the installation of a rock garden. McKeough plans to have the names added to each of the different species of Carolinian trees. “We want to see the legacy of this park continue and we’ve enjoyed working with the McKeough family,” said Deb Veccia, supervisor of parks and horticulture.
“We’ve had a lot of fun doing this and I look forward to anything else Mr. McKeough comes up with.” McKeough’s vision for the park is not complete.
He is working on obtaining two massive boulders that he said were brought to the area by glaciers between 12,000 and 20,000 years ago. One is located near the entrance to Rondeau Provincial Park and the other is in a ditch in the Valetta area.
Noting that “rocks are very permanent and strong, graceful,” McKeough also plans to have a plaque erected to tell the story of how these boulders arrived here.