St. John’s deserves a tomb of the unknown soldier

In 2014, I had the honour as a Newfoundlander to go on a group pilgrimage to Beaumont Hamel and be there to experience our annual memorial held there every July 1st along with hundreds of other visitors.

Not only did we see and experience Beaumont Hamel, we also completed the Trail of the Caribou and retraced the steps of the Royal Newfoundland Regiment to the other four caribou sites in Europe: Gueudecourt, Monchy-le-Preux, Masnières and Courtrai, where the Royal Newfoundland Regiment bravely fought.

At each caribou, we read out all the names of the fallen Newfoundlanders from that particular battle.

It was an extremely moving experience for everyone on our tour, especially when one of the participants read out a letter that a Royal Newfoundland Regiment soldier wrote to his mother during the war.

I was surprised to find out that the Newfoundland Memorial at Beaumont Hamel is one of only two First World War sites that have preserved trenches and battleground, and is visited mainly by French and British school groups, receiving about 350,000 visitors annually.

Also, every July 1st is made up of other ceremonies marking the start of the Battle of the Somme, such as Lochnagar Crater and Thiepval, and many of the Commonwealth countries represented at these memorials — the United Kingdom, South Africa, New Zealand and Australia — will also attend the Beaumont Hamel ceremony that same day.

One can only imagine what the 100th anniversary will bring in a few weeks, bringing thousands of visitors from all these countries.

We also visited other First World War cemeteries in Northern France and Belgium. Driving through the countryside, you see them everywhere.

At one cemetery, Cabaret Rouge, our guide explained that an unknown soldier who was interred there was removed on May 16, 2000 and brought to Ottawa to be placed in the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and the National War Memorial.

As Newfoundlanders, we all know that Canada has two official National War Memorials, one in Ottawa and the other on Duckworth Street in downtown St. John’s.

Both of them represent the extreme sacrifice that both Canadians and Newfoundlanders made during war and are sacred ground to everyone coast to coast.

As we saw many unknown Newfoundland graves during our visit (the tombstone with the caribou emblem states “Known Only Unto God”) , I immediately thought, we need to bring home an Newfoundland soldier and place him rightfully at the National War Memorial on in downtown St. John’s. It’s the right thing to do.

I have heard that it is only a matter of time before the 6th Royal Newfoundland Regiment Caribou is erected in Gallipoli, Turkey in memory of all Newfoundlanders who fell there in the First World War.

Hopefully this will get the priority it deserves now by our federal government in Ottawa, as opposed to the previous one.

The next project for the Royal Newfoundland Regiment, provincial and federal governments and the city of St. John’s should be to bring a Newfoundland soldier home to keep the flame of remembrance alive for future generations, for the 100th anniversary and beyond.

Michael Holden Lucerne, Switzerland

(formerly of Kilbride)