Home > Corporate > Media Centre > PSP-UK visits
PSP- UK visits 90th Anniversary of The Battle ofBeaumont-Hamel
By Lynne Clifford-Ward, PSP-UK Coordinator, Detachment Daws Hill, High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, UK, +1 00 44 1494 795 700,Clifford-Ward.LC@forces.gc.ca
This year, Canada Day offered a very special experience to 48 Canadian military members and their dependents in the United Kingdom.
During a six-day PSP-UK trip escorted by Dr. David Hall, a Canadian military historian, we attended the 90th anniversary of the Battle of Beaumont-Hamel and waved the flag for Newfoundland.
We stood proudly on top of the trenches, surrounded by the Royal Newfoundland Regiment, HRH Princess Anne, General Hillier CDS, Comd CDLS(L) Brigadier General Romses, attachés, local dignitaries, and visitors from near and far. We gazed at the magnificent monument topped with a bronze caribou, emblem of the Royal Newfoundland Regiment, while listening to a mournful bagpiper and speeches about the massive losses of courageous young soldiers on that very hot July day, 90 years ago.
Adding poignancy to the solemn occasion, several participants on our trip were Newfoundlanders, including one family, the Mercers’, representing three generations, ages 10 to 75.
 |
| Ryan MacNeil, 13 years old, and twins Gregory and Graeme Murphy, 14 years old, CF dependents living in the UK, standing in front of the Monument at Beaumont-Hamel, France, on July 1, 2006, the 90th Anniversary of the Battle at Beaumont-Hamel. |
Our trip began on June 30 at Shorncliffe, UK, when we attended a Commemorative Ceremony for Canadians. Annually, 300 local schoolchildren place flowers at the graves of Canadian military members on or around July 1, it’s called “Canada Flower Day”.
Whether it was Shorncliffe, Beaumont-Hamel or Vimy, one fact became very clear – contributions and sacrifices by Canada and Newfoundland are still acknowledged and respected by the world. It was humbling to realize and try to come to terms with the vast losses and thousands upon thousands of dead who have no known grave and are commemorated on walls or white grave stones simply as “A soldier of the Great War… Known unto God”.
PSP-UK is proud to have made this trip available to its UK community. One participant said she thought it would be wonderful if every Canadian could have the opportunity to experience a trip such as this, especially Canadian youth.
