Newfoundland Memorial
The Newfoundland Memorial of Beaumont-Hamel commemorates the participation of the Newfoundland Regiment during the Battle of the Somme.
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The well-preserved trench system, the only survival of its kind in the Somme, gives a vivid impression of the events of the opening day of battle. Commemorating the disaster that befell the Newfoundland Regiment, the site preserves the Allied front and reserve lines and the German front line accross a grassy slope. On the first day of the Battle of the Somme, July 1, 1916, the First Battalion of the Newfoundland Regiment sustained staggering casualities (86 percent of its full strengh). It has three battlefield cemeteries and monuments to the Highland Division (a fine statue of a Highlander) and the 29th Division. |
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Visitors can walk the duck-board lined trenches and climb up to the viewing-point, the caribou statue (emblem of Newfoundland which during the Great War was not yet part of the Dominion of Canada) on top of a mound with arrows pointing to battle sites all around …and to Newfoundland, 3,000 miles away to the west. At the base of the mound, three bronze tablets carry the names of 820 Newfoundlanders who gave their lives in the First World War and have no known grave. |
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An Interpretative Centre explains the social circumstances of Newfoundland at the beginning of the 20th century and traces the history of the Royal Newfoundland Regiment from its formation in 1914 to the end of the war. |
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PRACTICAL INFORMATION
The Newfoundland Memorial in Beaumont-Hamel
Rue de l'église
80300 Beaumont-Hamel
Tél : +33 (0)3 22 76 70 86
Fax : +33 (0)3 22 76 70 89
E-mail : newfoundland_memorial@vac-acc.gc.ca
To know more about the Newfoundland Memorial
