Vimy Oak Legacy Tree

Athens, Ontario
Type
Other

After the Battle of Vimy Ridge was won on April 12, 1917, Lieutenant Leslie Miller, a soldier from Ontario, gathered up a handful of acorns as a souvenir to the momentous victory. On returning to Canada, he transplanted the acorns on his land, calling his property the Vimy Oaks Farm. Today several of the oak trees he planted are still standing.

The Vimy Oaks Legacy Corporation repatriated Canadian Vimy Oaks back to Vimy Ridge and saplings were planted as part of the centennial commemorations in 2017 and 2018. Vimy Oaks saplings were offered for sale across the country as a memorial to the soldiers of the First World War.

Inscription

[plaque]
VIMY OAKS LEGACY TREE
2017

This oak tree is a descendant from the few acorns gathered after the Battle of Vimy Ridge by Canadian soldier Lt. Leslie Miller. Not a single oak tree remained standing in the aftermath of the shelling. This tree, a descendant of one of those acorns, is one of the trees planted across Canada to mark the 100th anniversary of this historic Canadian victory. It stands as a living memorial to all Canadian soldiers who fought in the First World War including the eleven Athens soldiers killed and memorialized on the nearby stone Cairn.

After a sendoff at the Athens train station the soldiers departed for Halifax then sailed to Europe. They found the battlefields of France scarred with huge bomb craters and strewn with the dead and dying. The weather was atrocious and in the trenches the soldiers stood in cold mud and water, in constant fear of mustard or chlorine gas attacks. The smell of death hung in the air. After 4 days the innovative strategy and ferocity of the four Canadian divisions prevailed, marking a pivotal moment in Canada's coming of age as a nation.

Photo caption: On their way to war, dust rises as part of the 156th Battalion marches proudly through Athens, c1916

Visitor information

Location
Vimy Oak Legacy Tree

35 Main Street East
Athens
Ontario
GPS Coordinates
Lat. 44.6268139
Long. -75.9500804
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