Every Nov. 11, Canadian eyes turn to Ottawa where, at the eleventh hour, the most solemn ceremony of our Remembrance Day takes place on Confederation Square. In front of the massive bronze National War Memorial statue entitled “The Response” and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, the Governor General, politicians, diplomats, veterans, members of the Army, Navy, and Air Force, and a Silver Cross Mother pay tribute to those who died fighting for our country. Similar memorial services take place across the nation.
These ceremonies, which we now take for granted, took a long time in evolving, and the history of Remembrance Day tells us a story of battles long forgotten and other memorial moments.
The first national occasion of honouring our war dead was not called Remembrance Day—it was called Decoration Day, and it was born out of protest. After the American Civil War, a number of invasions into Canada were launched by Irish malcontents based in the USA; they hoped that by conquering a part of the British Empire they could force Queen Victoria’s government to grant independence to Ireland. The largest clash between Canadian forces and these Fenians was the Battle of Ridgeway on June 2, 1866; nine Canadians were killed and 33 wounded before the Irishmen withdrew back across the border.
The memory of the battle and those who died lingered in Ontario, but the federal government took no steps to honour those who had participated. In 1890, on the 24th anniversary of the battle, veterans of the fight held a protest in Toronto against the official disregard in which they were held. They laid flowers at the foot of a statue to the fallen of Ridgeway, which had been erected by Toronto citizens, and demanded a special medal be struck and land grants given to ex-soldiers.
Depiction of the Fenian charge (L) against the Canadian Militia at the Battle of Ridgeway near Fort Erie, Ont., on June 2, 1866. Public Domain
They repeated this protest annually until, after a decade, their demands were granted. By this time, June 2 was known as Decoration Day and was seen as way to honour not only Ridgeway veterans but also those who died in putting down the 1885 North-West Rebellion.
It was not long before Decoration Day had a rival in commemorating the dead. This was Paardeberg Day, Feb. 27, given over to remember an action in 1900 during the Boer War. Troops from the Royal Canadian Regiment of Infantry under William Otter (who had taken part in quelling the North-West Rebellion) helped pin down some 4,000 Boers. Advancing by night, quietly digging trenches on high ground 60 metres from the Boer lines, they forced the enemy kommando to surrender. It was the first significant British victory of the war, despite the blundering of British officers who insisted on frontal attacks on entrenched Boer positions—always a recipe for disaster.
British Field Marshal Frederick Roberts hailed the troops. “Canadian,” he said, “now stands for bravery, dash, and courage.”
Paardeberg Day memorial services were held until the end of World War I in 1918. After that, Canadians remembered their military dead on Nov. 11, known first as Armistice Day and then, after 1931, as Remembrance Day.
Newfoundlanders, however, held their solemnities on a different date. We must not forget that Newfoundland was a latecomer to Confederation, and that until 1949 it had been both a colony and a semi-independent Dominion in the British Empire.
The Royal Newfoundland Regiment crossing the Rhine into Germany on Dec. 13, 1918. Public Domain
As part of the great Allied operation along the Somme, the Newfoundland Regiment was annihilated in an attack on German lines on July 1, 1916. The sector to which they were assigned required them to cross 500 metres of open ground exposed to a dug-in enemy who knew they were coming. The result was horrible—of the 800 men who went into the attack that morning, just 68 answered the roll call the following day. They were mowed down by machine-gun fire and blasted by artillery, yet they kept on coming. As they walked into the hail of machine gun and artillery fire, it was said that many of them tucked their chins in, almost like they were walking into the teeth of a blizzard back home. So concentrated was German fire and so constricted was the advance, that nearly every Newfoundlander killed fell on ground held by the British before the attack began.
To this day, every July 1, the island marks the tragic sacrifice of its men in the Battle of Beaumont-Hamel.
It was in 1914, during the so-called “war to end all wars,” that Laurence Binyon penned his famous poem “For the Fallen.” One stanza of the poem, known as “Ode of Remembrance,” is often read at memorial services in Commonwealth countries:
They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun, and in the morning
We will remember them.
Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
Gerry Bowler
Author
Gerry Bowler is a Canadian historian and a senior fellow of the Frontier Centre for Public Policy.
