Arboreal Eloquence: Trees and Commemoration A thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Geography at the University of Canterbury by J. Morgan Department of Geography University of Canterbury 2008 Abstract This thesis is about the use of trees for commemoration and the memory that they have anchored in the landscape. There has been little written on the use of trees for commemorative purposes despite its symbolic resonance over the last 150 years. To determine the extent to which commemorative trees have been employed, the social practice and context in which the trees were planted, field and archival work was undertaken in New Zealand and Australia. This has been supported with some comparative work using examples from Britain and the United States of America. The research also utilizes the new availabilities of records on-line and the community interests that placed historical and contemporary material on-line. The commemorative tree has been a popular commemorative marker for royal events, the marking of place and as memorial for war dead. It has been as effective an anchor of memory in the landscape as any other form. The memory ascribed to these trees must be understood in terms of the era in which the tree was planted and not just from a distance. Over time the memory represented by the trees and its prescribed meanings, has changed. For all its power and fragility, memory is not permanent but nor is it so ephemeral as to exhibit no robustness at all. Instead memory exists in a state of instability that leaves it open to challenge and to constant reassessment based on the needs of the viewing generation. This instability also allows the memory, and thus the tree, to fade and become part of the domestic landscape of treescape memories (Cloke and Pawson, 2008). However, in some circumstances trees are retrieved and reinscribed with specific memory and made relevant for a new generation. The landscape created by commemorative trees is, therefore, multifunctional, in which social relations support memory, remembrance, forgetting, silences, erasures, and memory slippage. ii Acknowledgements The journey has been long. With gratitude I would like to thank my supervisor, Professor Eric Pawson, for his encouragement, forbearance and understanding. My thanks also go to my second supervisor who has done a sterling job. From the field I would like to thanks the assistance of Susan Baker and Simon Daly for their time, vehicles, food and accommodation. The staff at various archives, museums and libraries have been helpful. Special thanks goes to the staff of the South Canterbury Museum, North Otago Museum, Sumner Museum and the Ballarat Mechanics Institute for contributing knowledge of their local place and assistance in finding information To the support crew, thanks to Maree Hemmingsen, Vaughan Wood, Jill Young, Gill Blackler, Kerry McCarthy, John Schischka, and Dawn and Derek Bisdee for their support, listening skills and advice. In addition, a heart felt thanks to the Rea family for living with the ups and downs of the journey. Thanks to the University of Canterbury PhD Scholarship and Department of Geography PhD Fund for financial support. iii Table of Contents Title i Abstract ii Acknowledgements iii Table of Contents iv List of Figures vii List of Tables viii Chapter 1 Introduction 1 Tree Memorialisation 6 Research Questions 7 Thesis Outline 8 Chapter 2 Memory Introduction 11 Memory 13 Remembering 13 Forgetting 15 Silences 16 Commemoration: memorials and monuments in practice 16 Forgetting and silences 19 Counter monuments 22 Summary 24 Chapter 3 Landscapes of Memory Representing Landscape 26 Education of the Eye: the historical development of the concept of landscape 27 Colonial Visions 32 Idea of Landscape: a way of seeing 38 Intertextuality: a way of seeing 39 Iconography 40 Landscape as Theatre 41 Summary: Landscape and Memory 43 Chapter 4 Charting Memories Introduction 46 Research Area 47 Locating Trees 50 Resources and Information 53 Archival Material 54 iv Newspapers 57 Electronic Newspapers 59 Council and Organisation Documents 60 War diaries, letters and memoirs 61 Books 61 Internet 62 Evaluation 63 Chapter 5 Landscapes of Empire and Identity Introduction 65 Royal Associations 67 “Catch[ing] the Echoes” (ODT, 1/7/1863: Celebrating the 1863 royal wedding 68 Royal Tours 76 The 1901 royal tour of the Duke and Duchess of Cornwall and 78 York The 1920 royal tour of Edward Albert, Prince of Wales 82 Multiple events, multiple plantings – coronations and jubilees 83 Shifting power relations 88 Landscapes of royal memory 90 Summary 92 Chapter 6 The Ma(r)king of Place Introduction 93 Place 95 Commemoration and Place 96 Arbor Day 99 Origins 99 Arbor Day in New Zealand 101 Trees in Place – analysis 109 Significant Developments 111 Gendered Memory 112 Case Studies: The male domain and the women planters 114 The women planters 114 Inside and outside the Christchurch Botanic Gardens 116 Ashburton Domain 119 Anniversaries 120 The commemorative surge of the 1970s 122 The changing face of place 123 Chapter 7 Landscapes of Sorrow: To Honour Their Name Introduction 125 Democratisation of memory and the naming of the dead 126 The Winds of change 126 The winds of change on the Military Front 127 The winds of change on the Home Front 128 v The winds of change on the Memory Front 130 War Trees 139 Trees as war memorials 139 Avenues 141 Constructing a database 147 Analysing memorial avenues 151 Avenues 151 Time of planting 153 Location 154 In memory of whom 155 Planted by whom 158 Signs 158 Choice of species 159 Organisation and preparation 160 Summary 162 Chapter 8 Competing Memories: official and personal Introduction 163 Rhetoric of war 164 The language of memory 166 The official ceremonies 166 The commemorative stone 168 The individual plaques 168 Case Studies 169 Avenue of Honour, Ballarat, Victoria, Australia 170 Memorial Oaks, Oamaru, New Zealand 176 Personal memories 181 Whose trees? – Trees in war and peace 184 Summary 190 Chapter 9 Arboreal Eloquence Recalling the Research Questions 192 What of the Future? 205 Contributing to Memory 207 References Primary Resources 209 Archives 209 Newspapers 210 Secondary Sources 211 Personal Communications 235 Electronic Resources 235 Appendices Appendix 1. Memorial Avenues 238 vi List of Figures 2.1 Statue of Queen Victoria relocated from Dublin, Ireland, to Sydney, Australia. 21 2.2 Lenin, Statue Park, Budapest, Hungry. 22 3.1 Mr and Mrs Andrews, by Thomas Gainsborough, 1748-1750. 32 4.1 Map of the South Island, New Zealand, research sites 48 4.2 Map of the Australian research sites 50 5.1 The location of the trees planted in Christchurch on 9 July 1863 to celebrate the royal wedding. 73 5.2 The Albert Edward Oak in the Christchurch Botanic Gardens. 74 5.3 The “Record Reign Circle” in the St Andrews’ Domain 86 6.1 Arbor Day at Rata School, Manawatu 1 August 1894 107 6.2 Tree planting at Toko School, Taranaki, July 1900 108 6.3 Map of the Christchurch Botanic Gardens and the reserves along the banks of the Avon River 117 6.4 The beech tree planted to the memory of Florence Nightingale in the Ashburton Domain 120 7.1 Lion monument to the Swiss Guard killed in France. Lucerne, Switzerland. 132 7.2 9th Queens Royal Lancers Memorial, Exeter Cathedral, Britain 134 8.1 The Ballarat Avenue of Honour 172 8.2 The North Otago Memorial Oaks. 180 8.3 Chateau Wood, Ypres, November 1917 186 8.4 A landscape of destruction on the Western Front 188 vii List of Tables 2.1 Dualisms around memorial conventions. 23 4.1 Archives visited or contacted in the course of this study 57 4.2 Useful sources of meeting minutes 61 5.1 Trees planted in Canterbury for the 1935 Silver Jubilee of George V’s reign and the 1937 coronation of George VI as reported in The Press newspaper. 87 6.1 Purposes for the planting of commemorative trees established from the database. 110 6.2 Temporal and spatial variations in the appearance of commemorative tree purposes established in Table 6.1 for given cities and towns 111 7.1 Location of British troops during the nineteenth century. 135 7.2 A sample of Organisations promoting and circulating information 146 about memorial avenues. 7.3 Figures for memorial avenues in each country. 148 7.4 Figures for memorial avenues for each state in Australia 148 7.5 Conflicts for which memorial avenues were planted 150 7.6 Possible choices made by avenue committees 151 8.1 Woods mentioned in the diaries, letters and memoirs of First World War soldiers. 189 viii Chapter 1 Introduction he Trees. When we plant here let us think that “Twe plant forever, let it not be for present delight nor for present use alone. Let it be such work as our descendents will thank us for and let us think that a time is to come when these trees will be held sacred because our hands have planted them and that men will say as they look upon the wonder and substance of them “See! this our fathers did for us.”” Adapted from John Ruskin Cornwall Park Trustees 1935 (Cornwall Park, Auckland, New Zealand). Memorials and monuments of stone and bronze dominate the literature of commemoration and the commemorative landscape, whilst the use of trees for these purposes lies very much at the periphery of academic scholarship. The limited writing available suggests that the use of commemorative trees has been extensive, although more popular at certain times than at others. Memorial trees represent a prolific form of commemoration, as ubiquitous as any other private and civic form in the landscape.