Paul Borrow-Longain retains close ties and friendships with both the Province of Newfoundland
and Newfoundlanders, having called the Province home for a number of years starting in 2005.
Today is marked by the Province and all Newfoundlanders remembering the deaths of soldiers
serving with the 1st Newfoundland Regiment during the Battle of the Somme in 1916 – Memorial
Day.

At 8:45 a.m. on the 1st July 1916 the Newfoundland Regiment and 1st Battalion, Essex Regiment
received orders to move forward. The Newfoundland Regiment was situated at St. John’s Road, a
support trench 250 yards behind the British forward line and out of sight of the enemy.
Movement forward through the communication trenches was not possible because they were
congested with dead and wounded men and under shell fire. Lieutenant Colonel Arthur Lovell
Hadow, the battalion commander, decided to move immediately into attack formation and
advance across the surface, which involved first navigating through the British barbed wire
defences.

As they breasted the skyline behind the British first line, they were effectively the only troops
moving on the battlefield and clearly visible to the German defenders. Subjected to the full force
of the 119th (Reserve) Infantry Regiment, most of the Newfoundland Regiment who had started
forward were dead, dying or wounded within 15 to 20 minutes of leaving St. John’s Road trench.
Most reached no further than the Danger Tree, a skeleton of a tree that lay in No Man’s Land that
was being utilised as a landmark.

So far as can be ascertained, 22 officers and 758 other ranks were directly involved in the
advance. Of these, all the officers and slightly under 658 other ranks became casualties. Of the
780 men who went forward only about 110 survived unscathed, of whom only 68 were available

for roll call the following day. For all intents and purposes the Newfoundland Regiment had been
wiped out, the unit as a whole having suffered a casualty rate of approximately 90 percent. The
only unit to suffer greater casualties during the attack was the 10th (Service) Battalion, Prince of
Wales’s Own (West Yorkshire Regiment), attacking west of Fricourt village.

The regiment today exists as The Royal Newfoundland Regiment, part of the 5th Canadian
Division’s 37 Canadian Brigade Group, with The Princess Royal being their Colonel-in-Chief.

You can learn more about the proud history and current operations of the regiment via the website
of the Canadian Army: https://army.ca/inf/rnfldr.php