It is our National Day and this year a very special day for us especially Newfoundlanders. Memorial Day to them.
Canada became a country officially July 1st 1867. "Happy Canada Day" to my fellow Canadians.
We have just watched on TV the "homecoming" of an unknown WW1 Soldier that was killed on the first day of the Battle of the Somme. July 1st 1916.
He was part of the Royal Newfoundland Regiment that at 9.15am were ordered over the top and 30 mins later the battle was over with devastating losses. Of the 710 men that went over the top the next morning at roll call only 68 men were there. Newfoundland pop in 1911 was only 242,619.
The fallen were buried at Beaumont- Hamel in France and that is where the unkown solders was repatriated from.
Very moving ceremony as I have two (grandfather & g/uncle) family members who died WW1. I believe one on the Somme he was aged 17.
I remember, mid 1960’s I was at junior school and we were living in Fulwood. The bus into town would go past an old folks home. It might have been called Willow Croft? Sometimes an old man would get on the bus at that stop. He had a walking stick and a chest full of medals, and the moment he put his foot on the platform he’d announce “I fought at the Battle of the Somme y’know.” All the way up the aisle he’d be shouting that he fought at the Battle of the Somme, and when he sat down he’d treat everyone on the bus to a long and rambling monologue about all the men he’d seen die. The whole bus would have gone quiet, no one said a word as he came out with this long list of names. Billy this and Albert that, and oh there was Wilfred.... and Walter and Ernest.... He would add that “ they were all good men... fine men too...” and he’d seen them all die and he’d fought at the Battle of the Somme. Eventually he’d get off the bus (reminding us on his way out that he’d fought at the Battle of the Somme) and then there’d been an awkward silence until some smart Alec would say “He fought at the Battle of the Somme, y’know!” There would be quiet, polite laughter. The ice was broken and people continued their chatting. It was so sad. How on earth did the survivors ever get over the horrors that they saw.