On April 20, 1917, some 2,500 citizens gathered as 14 silver maple saplings were planted along the Vining Street entrance roadway, now a walkway, to honour Victoria High School students killed in the Battle of Ypres. The Women’s Canadian Club donated the trees and organized the ceremony.
The dying trees were removed by the school district in 2011 and new trees were planted and rededicated on November 10, 2011. Red maple was chosen, in honour of both the original memorial trees and of the maple's symbolic significance to all Canadians. At the ceremony, the Victoria High Great War Banner was displayed hanging from the school facing Fernwood Road, as it was originally displayed in 1920.
Another oak was planted the same day in 1917 as the original 14 maple saplings, along Grant Street between Fernwood and Camosun. It still stands in honour of British Field Marshal Earl Kitchener, Secretary of State for War, also a casualty of the First World War.
