A ceremony will take place today to mark a unique aspect of the province’s military history.
The ceremony will recognize the adoption of the caribou as the symbol of the Newfoundland Regiment, a symbol first used by the Newfoundland Highlanders, established by Captain Victor Gordon who based the caribou symbol on the stag used in his native Scotland.
Heather MacLellan of the organizing committee says the Highlanders were one of four brigades formed in the early part of the last century by the four churches in the St. John’s Ecclesiastical District, alongside the Church Lads Brigade, the Methodist Guards and the Catholic Corps.
Members of the four brigades made up more than half of the first 500 sent over to fight in WWI.
It’s an aspect of the province’s history not many may be aware of. MacLellan says when the Newfoundland Regiment was formed, they wanted a symbol and the Highlanders were the only ones with a symbol that didn’t incorporate a religious symbol in its badge, so the caribou was adopted by the Regiment.
Today’s ceremony takes place at The Kirk on Queen’s Road at 11 a.m.