VIDEO: Resilient oak tree from Vimy Ridge replanted in B.C. for Remembrance Day

Published 12:01 pm Wednesday, November 12, 2025

A resilient oak tree from Vimy Ridge survived to be replanted for Remembrance Day at the Walk to Remember memorial in Derek Doubleday Arboretum.

On Tuesday, Nov. 11, Niall McGarvey, Township Assistant Manager of Parks, Design, and Development told visitors how it appeared the sapling might not survive its trip to Canada in 2017, when it was donated as a living memorial to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Battle of Vimy Ridge.

A resilient oak tree from Vimy Ridge was replanted for Remembrance Day at the Walk to Remember memorial for Canadian soldiers who died in Afghanistan pic.twitter.com/eKvcge1yUq

— Langley Advance Times (@LangleyTimes) November 11, 2025

“It had been in a shipping container for a week, coming from Ontario, and it had been 35 degrees and hadn’t seen the light of day for a week,” McGarvey explained.

“So when we got possession of it, the thing was was almost dead, and it had a couple of leaves left on it that were just ready to drop. So we put it in the ground, we did the photo op, and none of us really had any idea that it was going to live.”

After a long wait, just as he was preparing to ask for a replacement, McGarvey made one last visit to Derek Doubleday to check on the oak.

“There was a little green nub that had just pushed its way out. And so we said, ‘hold on a minute’ and we left it.”

Now a healthy 10-foot-tall English oak, the tree was relocated in time for Remembrance Day, to a landscaped setting that mimics the rolling terrain of the torn-up First World War battlefields of Belgium and France. Work on the landscaping was finished the day before Remembrance Day.

“I think it was very fitting that it [the sapling] fought to survive under difficult conditions,” McGarvey commented.

“It was the resilience and the toughness of Canadian soldiers that turned the tide of that battle, which in the end turned the tide of that war.”

The volunteer project was funded with contributions from the Rotary Club, Langley Foundation and the Royal Canadian Legion Aldergrove branch

For a third year, Joan Richmond attended the memorial to give a public presentation paying tribute to one of the soldiers named on the Walk to Remember.

“We pick a name at random to highlight each year and just try to keep up the tributes and honours and memories,” Richmond said.

This year, she spoke about Cpl. (Bombardier) Myles Mansell, 25, a reservist from Victoria with the 5th (British Columbia) Field Regiment, who died in April 2006 in Afghanistan near Gumbad, about 75 kilometres north of Kandahar. He was one of four Canadians killed when an improvised explosive device destroyed an enamoured vehicle.

Richmond was among more than 70 people who dropped by the Walk to Remember for a quiet Remembrance Day moment.

Murrayville resident Mike Gore has been attending the low-key event for the last six years.

“It’s quieter,” Gore remarked.

“We’ve been to some others that have sort of outgrown us. It’s nice to come here. It’s very solemn.”