Beaumont-Hamel Newfoundland Memorial
| Beaumont-Hamel National Historic Site Lieu historique national du Canada Beaumont-Hamel |
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|---|---|
 Lieu patrimonial du Canada |
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| Recognized since | 1997 |
| Type | National Historic Site |
| place | Beaumont-Hamel , France |
| Coordinates | 50 ° 4 '25.3 " N , 2 ° 38' 52.6" E |
| Recognized by | Canadian Federal Government |
| Approved by | Historic Sites and Monuments Act |
| Entry Canadian List of Monuments | |
The Beaumont-Hamel Newfoundland Memorial is a memorial in the northern French municipality of Beaumont-Hamel ( Somme department ). It was built to commemorate the achievements and sacrifices of soldiers from the Dominion of Newfoundland , during the First World War in the army of the British Empire served. It is the largest of the five Newfoundland war memorials in France and Belgium.
The monument is about nine kilometers north of the city of Albert , where the Battle of the Somme began on July 1, 1916 . On the very first day of the Battle of the Somme, the Royal Newfoundland Regiment was almost destroyed there. Therefore, after the end of the war, the Dominion Newfoundland acquired an area of around 34 hectares and built a memorial for the fallen Newfoundland there. The monument was created by the British sculptor Basil Gotto . On June 7, 1925, it was inaugurated by Douglas Haig , the former Commander in Chief of the British Expeditionary Force in France.
The extensive Newfoundland Memorial Park was laid out according to plans by the landscape architect RHK Cochius , who originally came from the Netherlands . In addition to several preserved trenches from the First World War and a number of smaller monuments, the park includes three military cemeteries:
- Hawthorn Ridge No. 2 (214 graves, including 191 British and 23 Newfoundland graves)
- Hunter's (46 graves)
- Y Ravine (366 tombs including 328 British and 38 Newfoundland)
The park is dominated by a bronze caribou , which proudly looks in the direction of the enemy on a man-made rock hill. The animal is the symbol of the Royal Newfoundland Regiment .
On April 9, 1997, the facility was declared a National Historic Site of Canada under the name Beaumont-Hamel National Historic Site .
Web links
- Beaumont-Hamel Newfoundland Memorial (Veterans Affairs Canada)
Individual evidence
- ^ Beaumont-Hamel National Historic Site of Canada. Canadian Register of Historic Places, accessed November 1, 2014 .