Patricia Turner-Petten, the wife of this year’s Silver Cross recipient, prepares to lay a wreath on behalf of her late husband Donald Turner, who served in the 1st and 2nd Battalions of Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry. Several hundred people attended this morning’s Remembrance Day ceremony at the National War Memorial in St. John’s. Today marks 106 years since a new generation of Newfoundlanders disappeared in Beaumont Hamel during the First World War. Of the approximately 800 soldiers of the Newfoundland Regiment who went over the top on 1 July 1916, only 68 responded to roll call the following day. This morning’s event started under warm, sunny skies, but was briefly interrupted by the shroud and chill of fog, before the sun came out again. Patricia Turner-Petten, the wife of this year’s Silver Cross, laid a wreath on behalf of her late husband Donald Turner, who served in the First and Second Battalions of Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry. Turner retired after joining the Army at age 17, but eventually succumbed to the effects of post-traumatic stress disorder. It’s a bittersweet day in Newfoundland and Labrador, with morning formals giving way to afternoon and evening Canada Day celebrations.
