Achi news desk-
An unknown soldier from Newfoundland, who fought and died on the battlefields of north east France during the First World War, is back home this weekend for the first time in more than a hundred years.
With a hearse, a plane and a fighter jet escort, a one-of-a-kind return has returned the soldier back to St. Eventually it will be planted at the National War Memorial in the center of the city.
“Knowing that somebody’s father, somebody’s mother, didn’t know where this person was, and now we’re bringing them home, answering their prayers,” said Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Andrew Furey, who walked in the parade as the next of kin officer. “It’s overwhelming to be there with my son, and feel the pressure of being premier and father at the same time.”
The remains of the soldier were transferred back to Canada – and to members of the Royal Newfoundland Regiment — in a ceremony Saturday morning at the Beaumont-Hamel memorial site.
French soldiers passed the casket under the Caribou monument, one of six similar monuments commemorating Newfoundland’s effort during the First World War, known as the Caribou Trail.
“It’s a moment I will die with,” said Frank Sullivan, a member of the Newfoundland and Labrador Command of the Royal Canadian Legion. “What can you say when you bring home a son?”
A casket of an unknown soldier arrives in St. John’s and is carried into a hearse by pall bearers. (CTV)
Sullivan served in the navy for decades, and was a big part of the campaign in Newfoundland and Labrador to recover one of its war dead.
Beaumont-Hamel was the site of a devastating battle that defined Newfoundland’s war effort, and its post-war history.
On the morning of July 1, 1916, hundreds of soldiers were killed in minutes after senior British officers ordered the troops over the trenches, through a few holes cut through barbed wire, and into relentless German machine gun fire.
It was part of the Battle of the Somme, and the British “big push” strategy. But Newfoundland – a separate dominion until 1949 – raised its own military force. The battle at Beaumont Hamel was the most devastating in the history of the Royal Newfoundland Regiment, and less than 10 percent of the soldiers answered the roll call the next day.
Newfoundland and Labrador is the first regional government within the Commonwealth of Nations to return an unknown soldier. The event was timed for the centenary of the opening of the National War Memorial in St.
Officials won’t say exactly where the unknown soldier died, as they hope he represents all Newfoundlanders who fought overseas and died with no known graves. Of the 1,700 Newfoundlanders who died in the First World War, more than 800 have no known grave sites.
