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The Great War (1914-1918) Forum

Remembered Today:

Trees instead of gravestones?


Skipman

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several years after the war, the city of Calgary (Alberta

 Canada)Council decided to line a major road with trees and name the street Memorial Drive (which extended for several miles).  as of today there are very few if any of the original trees that have survived (age/road improvement etc.).  several of the local funeral homes plant memorial trees in the local parks to commemorate the deceased.  the German cemetery La Cambe has planted oak trees with the names of fallen soldiers attached so not quite replacing the tomb stones but providing alternatives

 

 

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There is an avenue of Lime Trees on The Watton, Brecon, which represent the heroics of the 24th Regiment of Foot (then the 2nd Warwickshire Regiment, later the South Wales Borderers) during the Anglo-Zulu War of 1879. I'm not sure how many of them are the originals, though.

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Hmmm. I suppose it is a matter of taste as regards suitable commemoration of the fallen. The amount of space required for the trees would be a problem, maintenance another, what would you do when they blew down/died (i.e. how to keep track), how would they have been labelled? The Vimy Memorial site has literally hundreds of thousands of trees (never the 65,000, or whatever, one for each Canadian soldier etc. that used to get trotted out); remember that two thirds of the site plus is out of bounds to the public - and they are all coming to the end of their natural life. In some ways one could argue that they did plant trees - e.g. Verdun - granted that no commemoration was intended. And, of course, what would the people of the time have said?

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bearing in mind the closeness of some headstones and also that some have multiple names on I think the trees would be fighting for light and room. also a good source of firewood for the French.

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An avenue of trees was planted and known as Des Moines Memorial Drive between Seattle and Des Moines. Each tree was named after a fallen soldier (a few were to women and, I guess, airmen). I believe that upkeep of the trees has been neglected and that it is now in a sorry state compared with it's former self and what was intended.

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Avenues of Honour were planted along the major roads entering a number of Australian towns. Councils now talk of removing them to allow for urban sprawl development.

 

In the situation from the FB meme, IMHO, so many of the trees would need to be removed due to overcrowding and poor development (of the trees), it would defeat the purpose. 

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The War Memorial Park in Coventry has well over a hundred of them, each with a commemorative plaque bearing the details of the person being commemorated. This also includes WW2 and a small amount of modern casualties. The plantings started in the 1920's.

 

Walter Atkins was one of the original tank crews and Pioneer Frank Farrell was a member of the Special Brigade.

 

TR

 

 

 

 

 

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Edited by Terry_Reeves
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I have seen the avenue of trees in King Park, Perth and thought it very fitting and moving, particularly the ones commemorating two brothers side by side. Of course the actual graves are thousands of miles away.

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