An unknown soldier from Newfland, killed in the First World War, is laid to rest

SF. JOHN’S, NL — The remains of a Newfoundland soldier killed on the battlefields of France during World War I will be laid to rest in St. John’s on Monday, bringing an emotional end to a years-long effort in a place still shaken and forever changed by the bloodshed.

Berkley Lawrence was among the Newfoundland delegation that escorted the soldier’s remains home from France last month ahead of Monday’s ceremony at which the Unknown Soldier will be placed in a black granite tomb at the National War Memorial in St. John’s.

Lawrence served in the Canadian military for 33 years and is now the first vice-president of the Royal Canadian Legion.

His grandfather, Pte. Stephen Lawrence, was among 800 members of the Royal Newfoundland Regiment who charged over the top of the trenches, armed only with rifles and bayonets, into German machine-gun fire at Beaumont-Hamel on the morning of July 1, 1916. More than 700 men were killed or wounded as the frontal attack became a slaughter that nearly destroyed the regiment.

Stephen Lawrence was wounded and was among the few to return home to Newfoundland, his grandson said.

“(The unknown soldier) we brought back could have been the person standing next to my grandfather in the trenches before he went over the top,” Lawrence said in a recent interview.

Monday is Canada Day in the rest of the country, but in Newfoundland and Labrador, July 1 starts as Memorial Day. It is time to remember the hundreds of young men of the Newfoundland Regiment who died during the disastrous battle in northern France, at a time when Newfoundland was not yet part of Canada. This year also coincides with the 100th anniversary of the creation of the war memorial in St. John.

The staggering death toll at Beaumont-Hamel is still felt in Newfoundland today.

“There were soldiers from all over the province who came and joined the war effort in World War I,” Lawrence said. “When we lost so many soldiers in the First World War, it affected every community.” At the time, Newfoundland was a self-governing dominion within the British Empire, home to approximately 240,000 people.

Author Michael Crummey, who co-wrote “Newfoundland at Armageddon,” a documentary film about Beaumont-Hamel, said he was struck by how personal the loss still seemed to be for many people he spoke to in his research.

“I think it’s because this place is so small and the bonds between everyone are so tight,” Crummey said in an interview. “Six degrees of separation just doesn’t apply here, it’s one or two at best. So it seems that all those losses affected us all, that our lives would be completely different if the First World War had not happened.”

The war had other lasting impacts besides the human toll, Crummey added.

Newfoundland, as a dominion, raised an enormous amount of money to send its men to fight in the war, and the effort added about $35 million to the public debt, according to Heritage Newfoundland and Labrador.

Newfoundland’s heavy debt ultimately influenced its leaders’ decision to return Newfoundland to British government control in 1934 and join Canada in 1949, Crummey said.

“In a way, I think July 1, marking what happened at Beaumont-Hamel, is a way to commemorate the lost nation of Newfoundland,” he said, adding, “It’s impossible to separate those components — our feeling that Newfoundland is disappearing as a nation and becoming something different from what happened at Beaumont-Hamel”.

Bringing the Unknown Soldier home and tricking him into the National War Memorial may not bring closure, Crummey said. But it will give people a place to put all that emotion.

“It’s a place for people to sit and allow that emotion to have a home,” he said.

Lawrence worked for about seven years alongside two fellow veterans – Frank Sullivan and Gary Browne – to renovate the war memorial. Sullivan, who served in the regular and reserve forces for 42 years, came up with the idea to bring the Unknown Soldier home, Lawrence said. Politicians, including federal Labor Minister Seamus O’Regan, who represents a team from St. John’s, and Premier Andrew Furey, quickly joined the effort, he said.

They were able to argue that the Unknown Soldier brought from Vimy Ridge in France to the National War Memorial in Ottawa in 2000 did not quite capture Newfoundland’s World War I experience because Newfoundland was not part of Canada at the time.

The soldier’s grave will represent deceased Newfoundlands and Labradorians from all branches of service who have no known grave and thus the soldier’s identity will not be investigated.

But members of the Royal Newfoundland Regiment had clear insignia on their uniforms — a caribou button or Newfoundland lightning bolts on the shoulder — that declared their allegiance, Lawrence said.

Lawrence said she’s preparing for an emotional day Monday, but she also expects to feel a great sense of relief once the soldier is buried. He hopes the relief will be felt throughout the province.

The remains of the Unknown Soldier lie at the provincial legislature since Friday. Sunday is the last day the public can visit them.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published on June 30, 2024.

Sarah Smellie, Canadian Press