Lone Pine (tree)
Lone Pine was the name given to a single growing tree on the Gallipoli Peninsula in Turkey, which marked the site of the Battle of Lone Pine in 1915. Pine trees that were planted to commemorate the Australian and New Zealand soldiers who are known in Gallipoli as "Lonesome Pines" or " Gallipoli Pines", in allusion to the original tree.
The original "Lonesome Pine"
The original "Lonesome Pine" was the only survivor of a group of trees, which was precipitated by Turkish soldiers who had used the timber and branches to cover their trenches during the battle. The tree was destroyed as a result of battle; but the pine cones that had remained on the broken branches over the trenches were rescued by two Australians and brought home to Australia. It was found that the seedlings obtained therefrom were Calabrian pine, sometimes regarded as a subspecies of Pinus halepensis ( Aleppo pine ), but are usually classified as a separate species, Pinus brutia.
The tree on the Lone - pine cemetery, Gallipoli
The Lone pine cemetery in Gallipoli, a single pine tree was planted to symbolize the original Lone Pine in the 1920s. This tree was examined in 1987 by an Australian botanist and confirmed as Steinpinie (Pinus pinea).
Trees in Australia
The soldier Thomas Keith McDowell, an Australian soldier from the 23rd Battalion, who fought in Gallipoli, brought a pine cone from the battle- field home to Australia. Many years later, seeds were planted from the pin by the aunt of his wife, Emma Gray of Grassmere, in Warrnambool, Victoria and five seedlings were developing, four of whom survived. These seedlings were planted in four different locations in Victoria - Wattle Park, on (May 8, 1933), at the Shrine of Remembrance, on (June 11 1933), the Soldiers Memorial Hall at The Sisters in Terang, on ( 18 June 1933 ) and in the Warrnambool Botanic Gardens on (23 January 1934).
The tree in the Shrine Reserve was planted near the northeast corner of the building by Lieutenant-General Sir Stanley Savige, the founder of Melbourne Legacy in a formal ceremony.
Another soldier, Lance Corporal Benjamin Smith from the 3rd Battalion also rescued a journal from the battlefield and sent it to his mother ( Mrs McMullen ) in Australia, who had lost another son at the battle. The seeds from the cones were planted by Mrs McMullen in 1928, from which two seedlings were growing up. One of her hometown of Inverell has been paid and the other sent to Canberra where it was planted by Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester at the Australian War Memorial in October 1934.
Both the Melbourne Legacy and the Yarralumla Nursery in Canberra for many years, numerous seedlings grown and raised, which at the Australian War Memorial descended from the tree at the Shrine of Remembrance and by the which they have schools paid as well as veterans and other organizations throughout Australia.
Trees in New Zealand
The memorial trees were also planted in the cemetery of Taradale and at King Edward Park in Stratford, New Zealand.