Remembrance

The banks of the river Ythan are awash with the blue of Forget-me-nots at the moment. The Forget-me-not, which is native to Europe, is known formally as Myosotis sylvatica which translates as the "woodland mouse's ear".

Legend has it that in medieval times, a knight and his lady were walking along the side of a river. He picked a posy of flowers, but because of the weight of his armour he fell into the river. As he was drowning he threw the posy to his loved one and shouted "Forget-me-not." Ever since it has been worn by ladies as a sign of faithfulness and enduring love.

Prior to becoming the tenth province of Canada in 1949, the old British Dominion of Newfoundland used the Forget-me-not as a symbol of remembrance of their war dead. Newfoundlanders traditionally observed Memorial Day on July 1st each year, as a reminder of the hundreds of casualties suffered by the Royal Newfoundland Regiment on July 1, 1916 at Beaumont-Hamel, France during the Battle of the Somme. Of the 801 men in the 1st Newfoundland Regiment, 733 were killed or wounded that day.