Hundreds gathered at the National War Memorial in St. John’s this moming for the annual July 1st Memorial Day ceremony.

It’s been marked since July 1917 to remember the loss or more than 700 soldiers of the 1st Newfoundland Regiment at Beaumont-Hamel on the first day on the Somme during the First World War.

Chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Mark Milley, lays a wreath at the National War Memorial in downtown St. John's. @VOCMNEWS pic.twitter.com/IjYRUxwai2

— Brian Callahan (@briancallahan67) July 1, 2023

Security was tight around the event this morning with the surprise arrival of the Chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Mark Milley, as well as Canada’s Chief of Defence Staff, Gen. Wayne Eyre.

Today’s ceremony was the last before the province’s own Tomb of the Unknown soldier is installed at the War Memorial.

Remains of a Newfoundland solider from The Great War will be repatriated over the next year and placed in the tomb for next year’s ceremony.