As Canada marks the 100th anniversary of the Battle of Vimy Ridge and Newfoundland and Labrador marks the anniversary of the Battle of Monchy-le-Preux on Sunday, April 9, Memorial has released a video produced by a student who studied at the university’s Harlow Campus last fall.

The video was created by Nora Barker, a Grand Falls-Windsor native and a student in Prof. Jamie Skidmore’s course, English 3816: Television, using material from her class trip from Harlow Campus to First World War battlegrounds in France. Ms. Barker is doing a double major in English and anthropology.

The video can be seen here.

Other students involved in making the video are Cassie McGrath, an English major from Placentia; Hannah DeBourke, a communications studies major from St. John’s; and Leslie Amminson, an English major also from St. John’s.

My Boy in Camp

In the two-minute video, Ms. Barker recites a poem written by her great-great-grandmother, Anastasia Sparkes of Bell Island, about her son George as he headed off to the First World War. The poem is titled “My Boy in Camp.” Mr. Sparkes died at Beaumont-Hamel during the Battle of the Somme.

Ms. Barker is also seen laying a wreath in memory of Mr. Sparkes, alongside student Sarah Parsons, who lays a wreath in memory of her relation, George Pike.

The class trip to France was supported by Memorial University’s WW100 Living Memorial Commemoration Fund, which was established to provide assistance with the planning and delivery of First World War commemoration activities.