Vimy Oak Tree: From RMC to the National Memorial To The Fallen

November 25, 2024 – Defence Stories
Estimated read time - 1:30

In September 2021, a Director from the National Wall of Remembrance Association (NWORA) suggested a way in which to add prestige to the project of establishing the National Memorial to The Fallen along the waterfront in Kingston’s Macdonald Memorial Park, adjacent to the Murney Tower Museum of Ontario.

By planting an oak tree from acorns of the descendant of the Vimy Oak Tree planted on the campus of the Royal Military College of Canada (RMC), a permanent link will be made between RMC, Vimy Ridge and the memorial itself.

The oak to be planted at the new memorial is a direct offspring of the Vimy Oak Tree located on the campus of RMC - across the Kingston Harbour - which commemorates RMC graduates who served at the battle of Vimy Ridge in April 1917.

In turn, the RMC oak was propagated from acorns collected on Vimy Ridge in April 1917 during the Second World War, where 3,598 Canadians died.

In August 2022, the opportunity to collect acorns from the RMC oak was missed as it appears that squirrels had a different plan for these acorns. 

In October 2023, four acorns were collected by a postdoctoral fellow at RMC’s Environmental Sciences Group with the Department of Chemistry & Chemical Engineering of RMC.

These acorns were cold stratified for approximately two months to improve germination rates, and were then planted into pots of soil and allowed to grow in a protected setting.

By November 2024, they had grown to approximately 30 cm.

The National Memorial To The Fallen is scheduled to be unveiled in the summer of 2025, and a new Vimy Oak Tree from RMC will be transplanted on site when it is safe to do so.

The memorial is funded by donations and advertisements in the NWORA annual magazine Remembrance/Souvenir.