Lt. Leslie H. Miller and the Vimy Oaks

Lt. Leslie H. Miller and the Vimy Oaks. . Lieutenant Leslie Howard Miller, a soldier with the Canadian Expeditionary Force (3rd Division, Signal Corps) fought at the Battle of Vimy Ridge. Originally from Ontario, Miller was a school teacher in Saskatchewan at the outbreak of war, but left his position to enlist in the fall of 1914. He served from 1914 until his return to Canada in the spring of 1919, mostly in France., Miller was an ardent naturalist who kept a diary throughout the war in which he spoke of architectural and natural features of the French landscape. Amid the devastation of a war ravaged countryside, Leslie had the presence of mind to collect acorns from mature oaks. On his return to Canada he planted them at his new farm in Milliken, Ontario (Scarborough). He named the farm 'Vimy Oaks'., As part of the 100th anniversary of the Battle of Vimy Ridge, the Vimy Oaks Legacy Corporation repatriated to France acorns from Miller's former farm, to be planted near the Canadian National Vimy Memorial. Descendants of Miller's original oaks continue to be distributed across Canada to select places of commemoration., This Vimy Memorial Tree was planted June 16, 2017 in commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the Battle. It is a living memorial to the Canadian soldiers who served in the First World War, and a symbolic connection to perhaps the most widely-known military engagement in Canadian history.