51st (Highland) Division Monument

About

The 51st (Highland) Division Memorial at Beaumont-Hamel is a memorial in France commemorating the soldiers of the 51st (Highland) Division killed during World War I. The memorial is located near Y Ravine on the 84-acre (340,000 m2) Beaumont-Hamel Newfoundland Memorial site. This position had been the scene of the Division's first major victory on 13 November 1916 during the Battle of the Ancre, the closing stage of the Battle of the Somme.

Memorial: The ground originally donated by the commune of Beaumont-Hamel to the Veterans of the 51st (Highland) Division, for the purposes of a memorial, was found to be unstable because of the many dumps on the site. Lieutenant Colonel Nangle, the formation Roman Catholic padre of the Royal Newfoundland Regiment which was widely responsible for the establishment of the Beaumont Hamel Newfoundland Memorial, offered the association a location overlooking Y Ravine within the boundaries of the site. Y Ravine was a forked gully (hence its name) which contained a formally-fortified warren of defensive positions that had been the scene of a standing victory by the Highland Division on 13 November 1916. The sculptor selected for the 51st Division Monument...