Enduring Witness: 100 years of Newfoundland's National War Memorial
National War Memorial in downtown St. John's is 1 of only 2 in Canada
It's a sombre monument to Newfoundland and Labrador's role in the First World War, and on Monday it turns 100 years old.
The National War Memorial in downtown St. John's is one of only two in Canada — the other stands tall in Confederation Square in Ottawa, a stone's throw from Parliament.
Part of Monday's centennial ceremony is the establishment of Newfoundland and Labrador's Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, where the remains of a member of the Royal Newfoundland Regiment, who died in northern France during the First World War will have a final resting place. The remains were repatriated late last month during a ceremony at Beaumont-Hamel, a historic site in its own right for the regiment, which suffered mass casualties during the Battle of the Somme, July 1, 1916.
The monument was unveiled July 1, 1924. At the time the province was the self-governing Dominion of Newfoundland. It came nearly six years after the armistice and included three years of planning before Field Marshal Douglas Haig pulled the rope to uncover the bronze and granite memorial to the thousands who crowded the grounds, streets and rooftops in and around Duckworth and Water streets.
Haig commanded the British army on the Western Front for most of the war, including during the 1916 Somme offensive, one of the deadliest battles in human history. The Newfoundland Regiment was nearly decimated at Beaumont-Hamel.
Haig wrote to the governor of Newfoundland just days after with this message:
"Newfoundland may well feel proud of her sons. The heroism and devotion to duty they displayed on the first July has never been surpassed."
More than 12,000 Newfoundland and Labradorians served and sacrificed in the First World War. More than 1,700 lost their lives, and roughly 800 of them have no known grave.
Haig's visit drew thousands — and a week filled with events. But the focus was the new memorial, designed by British artists Gilbert Bayes and Ferdinand Victor Blundstone.
The artistic design was unlike anything seen in St. John's at that point, with the central statue high atop the middle pillar coined the Spirit of Newfoundland, a woman holding a torch in her left hand as a symbol of freedom inspired by the poem In Flanders Fields, written by John McCrae. The woman holds a sword in her right hand, ready for battle if freedom is threatened.
Below her stand four lifelike figures, each representing a branch of the military, and plaques added over the years to honour those who died in the Second World War, Korea and Afghanistan.
The memorial was designated a national historic site in 2019 — the only war memorial in Canada to receive that distinction.
Building the monument
Thomas Nangle, a Catholic priest in St. John's who was padre to the regiment, served alongside the soldiers, in the trenches, burying the dead, consoling the wounded and motivating the troops.
After the war, he returned to France and Gallipoli and played a major role in recovering and identifying the remains of Newfoundland soldiers who were killed in action.
He also spearheaded the establishment of five caribou memorials in France and Belgium, in what came to be known as the Trail of the Caribou.
"He knew more than anyone else how important it was for the mothers of those people and all their families," said researcher and author Gary Browne, who has spent decades combing through letters and documents of the era and has written two books.
"They started in 1918, talking about it, but it took until padre Nangle finally had it finished in 1924. He was the leading person, the energy behind it."
Nangle was called upon in early 1922 to help with the National War Memorial after the effort began to stall. Newfoundland was in rough financial shape after funding its railroad, the war effort and the collapse of the fish market in 1921.
The push began in earnest in June 1921, when a who's who of the St. John's elite assembled for a meeting.
"Those gathered that very first night expressed a bit of embarrassment, disappointment in themselves that they hadn't gotten together sooner to start action on this. So they immediately started formulating a plan and they had a very ambitious goal of unveiling this in just 13 months' time, July 1, 1922," said Beverly Bennett, an archivist with The Rooms, Newfoundland and Labrador's provincial archives and museum. "That didn't happen."
But even with a $5,000 boost from city leaders, the project was still on rocky ground.
Money was lacking, and there was a little resentment within the community at a time when people were feeling an economic pinch.
Still, fundraising efforts pushed on.
By the winter of 1922, the war memorial committee had raised $15,000, a substantial figure but far short of the $50,000 goal. That shelved the plan to unveil the monument that year.
Enter Nangle
Nangle met with the committee and Newfoundland Prime Minister Richard Squires, who told the committee a school would be built in honour of the fallen. Memorial University College opened on Parade Street in 1925.
But Nangle had news of his own: the Imperial War Graves Commission had pledged five pounds sterling for every Newfoundlander who died during the war.
"That would be more than enough to create this war memorial, but he had one condition: he wanted free hand to do this," said Bennett.
Nangle put the project back on track but not without another hurdle to overcome: a feud with renowned British sculptor Basil Gotto.
Gotto's fighting Newfoundlander statue stands in Bowring Park. He also made the caribou memorials in France and Belgium.
But in 1923, Nangle fired him from the memorial project over his clay sculpture of a shirtless Royal Naval Reserve sailor carrying a rifle — not an accurate reflection of the unit.
Nangle wrote in a letter that Gotto didn't understand his vision, but it wasn't just the sculpture. A fight ensued over delivery dates, payments, and lower quotes from other sculptors, and Nangle moved onto Bayes and Blundstone.
Eventually, fundraising targets were met, and every cent was spent.
The downtown St. John's National War Memorial was unveiled 15 years before Canada's National War Memorial in Ottawa — and 25 years before Newfoundland and Labrador became a province.
But on Monday it'll also become a cemetery. The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier will be unveiled in front of thousands, much like when the memorial itself was unveiled 100 years ago by Haig.
"Now it becomes a Commonwealth war graves cemetery, and Nangle's dreams come true," said Browne.
Watch the full documentary Enduring Witness: The Story of Newfoundland's National War Memorial at 100 Years by clicking on the video at the top of this story.
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With files from Terry Roberts