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Langley students keep soldier’s memory ever green

A new tree will be planted in Fort Langley to honour a fallen local soldier.
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A class of Grade 5 students at Langley Fine Arts was inspired by one of Langley’s last memorial trees. Only the tree’s stump remains.

When one of the last trees commemorating Langley’s First World War dead came down, a class of local students took note.

On Jan. 19, Township staff cut the prominent, ailing maple at the corner of 96th Avenue and Glover Road.

The tree was a memorial for A.W. Wilson, and was one of numerous trees planted all over Langley in the early 1920s.

Each was a marker for a soldier who had fallen in the war.

Over the years, most of the trees were lost – some to road widening, others to age, weather, or development.

A few of the trees still exist in Fort Langley and west Langley, some of them as stumps.

Langley Fine Arts teacher Emilie Colbourne used the imminent cutting of the tree to teach her students about the close local connection to world history.

After the tree was taken down, she collected a branch and brought it back to the classroom.

But she said her Grade 5 students wanted to do more.

They created a memorial of the tree on their hallway bulletin board.

Colbourne credits the students with coming up with the idea.

“We wanted people to notice that it was cut down, so other people could learn,” said student Kaya Kondo.

“We wanted everybody in the school to actually pay attention to it,” said Kai Verbicky.

The students have also been learning about the Battle of Vimy Ridge, which has its 100th anniversary this year.

Vimy Ridge was the first battle in the First World War in which almost all the Canadian troops fought together. They formed the vast bulk of the allied force, and suffered many casualties while attacking a heavily fortified German position.

The students are aware of the costs of war as represented through the memorial trees.

“It’s a living thing, but it was made to remember someone who died for us,” said Elliot Porter.

Although the A.W. Wilson tree has come down, it won’t be long before there is another maple planted in the man’s memory.

This year, on Arbour Day on April 23, Langley Township will plant a replacement tree in a ceremony either on or near that site.

More than a decade ago, Langley Township arbourists began cultivating seedlings from some of the surviving maple trees.

The plan was to grow them into replacements for the aging memorial trees.

The Township’s Heritage Advisory Committee was scheduled to meet this week to talk about the project, said Tab Buckner, the Township’s manager of parks operations.

He said there were five seedlings prepared for possible planting.

The students from Colbourne’s Grade 5 class are hoping to come down to see the new tree planted.



Matthew Claxton

About the Author: Matthew Claxton

Raised in Langley, as a journalist today I focus on local politics, crime and homelessness.
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