July 1st marks the 103rd anniversary of the Battle of Beaumont Hamel, a tragic and defining moment in Newfoundland history.

Newfoundland troops, went over the top on the morning of July 1st, and straight into enemy gunfire.

Of the nearly 800 members of the Newfoundland Regiment who participated in the failed advance, only 68 answered roll call the following day. 324 were killed and another 386 were wounded.

Archivist at the Rooms, Larry Dohey, says the battle had a profound impact on Newfoundland, touching nearly every corner of the island.

After the battle, mothers often wrote to the regiment looking for photographs of their son’s graves. That’s where celebrated regimental chaplain Thomas Nangle comes in.

Dohey says Nangle was appointed Newfoundland’s representative to the Imperial War Graves Commission. That led Nangle to return to France and Belgium to exhume the bodies of dead soldiers and give them proper military burials.