In July 2017, Cornwall’s Memorial Park became home to two beautiful ‘Vimy’ oak saplings. They are descendants of oak trees which once grew on the site of the Battle for Vimy Ridge, in northeastern France; a First World War battle which is of great historic significance to Canada.
These trees existed thanks to Lt. Leslie Miller, who having survived the 1917 battle, gathered the acorns from the devastated site, and sent them home to his family. They planted the acorns on their farm in Scarborough, Ontario.
They eventually grew into an impressive still-standing grove of trees. Miller, having returned from the war, named the farm “Vimy Oak.” Eventually, a young farmhand, Monty McDonald, came to work with him and became a lifelong friend. Leslie Miller died in 1979, but Monty McDonald did not forget the oaks.
McDonald toured the memorial at Vimy Ridge in the early 2000s and discovered that there were no oak trees anymore. He immediately thought of the oaks from Vimy on the farm in Canada. Connecting with the Vimy Foundation, Mr. McDonald received support for his idea of sending oak trees back to Vimy Ridge.
An early concept had been for oak trees to line the road from Vimy Ridge to the nearest town of Lens, but this evolved into plans for construction of a park. This may have been due to the immense task of clearing unexploded ordnances, which continue, to this day, to be a hazard throughout the area.
There were challenges. The Vimy oak trees failed to produce sufficient acorns, at that time, so tree cuttings were taken and grafted to rootstock Then, a new disease affecting trees in Europe meant these saplings could not be shipped to France. They were placed at a nursery in Dundas ON
Fortunately, the trees produced a great crop of acorns in a following year. These were shipped to France and successfully grown in a nursery.
Now the Vimy oaks have completed the journey back to France, where they continue to grow in the new park which marks the 100th anniversary of the end of the First World War. Located beside the Canadian National Vimy Memorial, it features four concentric rings representing the four Canadian divisions that fought at Vimy and offers a direct view of the magnificent Canadian National Vimy Memorial, designed by Walter Seymour Allward.
Those saplings of the original trees, growing in Dundas, have now made their way across Canada, too. More than 800 of these trees now grow at Legions, parks, war monuments, and private residences – including our two, now much larger, in Memorial Park in Cornwall.
Learn more from these sites and Transitioncornwall.com
https://www.veterans.gc.ca/eng/remembrance/wars-and-conflicts/first-world-war/battle-of-vimy-ridge
https://www.veterans.gc.ca/eng/remembrance/memorials/vimy
https://vimyfoundation.ca/projects/vimy-centennial-park
