Danger Tree was unveiled on June 28, 2016, and dedicated by Princess Anne to mark 100 years since the Battle of Beaumont-Hamel. Princess Anne is the Colonel-in-Chief of the Royal Newfoundland Regiment.
The bronze artwork, by Newfoundland sculptor and Memorial alumnus Morgan MacDonald, depicts the tree where many members of the Royal Newfoundland Regiment died by enemy fire during the Battle on July 1, 1916. As the Newfoundlanders advanced toward the enemy, a tree partway down the slope marked the spot where German fire seemed to become particularly intense. This gnarled tree was nicknamed the "danger tree" by the Newfoundland troops and it marked the spot where many of them would fall that morning. As they walked into the hail of machine gun and artillery fire, it was said that many of them tucked their chins in, almost like they were walking into the teeth of a blizzard back home. But this time it was not snow flying all around them—the Newfoundland Regiment would be practically decimated in less than half an hour of intense German fire.
The First World Artifacts that are incorporated into the Danger Tree are items sourced from the Somme battlefields near Beaumont-Hamel and were found in farmers barns after it was turned over in the plowed fields. The Danger Tree Memorial Site is a collaboration between the Forget-Me-Not Campaign and Grenfell Campus.
Dave Higdon, chair of Corner Brook's Forget Me Not Committee, has committed years of his life to preserving the memories of fallen soldiers through the installation of a series of commemorative statues. During a Remembrance Day ceremony in 2010, a mother of a fallen solider laid a small wreath in her son's memory. Dave was saddened to watch her lay it on the small block of granite that was built on the ground and served as a memorial plaque. He thought a small wreath on a small block was not good enough and that's where the idea for the monuments began.
Three statues of remembrance have been placed in Corner Brook. A caribou representing the Newfoundland Regiment and two soldiers – one representing a First World War solider and a second representing an Afghanistan solider of today – are installed at Remembrance Square.
In 2012, the committee decided to gift The Danger Tree, the latest in the monument statue collection, to Grenfell Campus when Dr. Mary Bluechardt, vice-president (Grenfell Campus) was involved in unveiling of the caribou statue at the war monument. The committee garnered the necessary financial support, which included an investment from the university’s Living Memorial Commemoration Fund, and a wide range of individual and corporate donations.
Morgan has completed many military pieces across the province: The Homecoming, One Hundred Portraits of the Great War and Caribou Memorial Veterans Pavilion, St John's; Private Hugh McWhirter Statue, Corner Brook; Monument of Honour, Conception Bay South; Cox's Cove War Memorial; and Sergeant Gander and his Handler Memorial; Gander.
