Enduring Witness: 100 years of Newfoundland's National War Memorial

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.

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.