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The story behind the Guelph Cenotaph tulips

750 tulips were donated by local landscape architect in memory of grandfather and great uncle who served in the wars
20200512 tulips ts
A Netherlands flag sits among tulips planted in front of the Guelph Cenotaph in Downtown Guelph. Tony Saxon/GuelphToday file photo

It was much more than a random act of kindness that led to 750 orange tulips brightening up the Guelph Cenotaph.

The tulips were donated by local landscape architect Paul Brydges, who also donated 75 tulips to Guelph CVI and planted 75 at his house.

The tulips, which were imported from Holland and are named Liberation 75 tulips, do indeed mark the 75th anniversary of the end of World War II, and more specifically the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the Netherlands by Canadian troops.

But for Brydges, it goes much deeper.

His maternal grandfather, Roy H. Moon, was one of those Canadian troops that helped liberate the Netherlands as a member of Guelph’s 12th Field Regiment and his great uncle Norman Brydges died in France shortly after the battle of Vimy Ridge.

A Vimy Oak that grows behind the cenotaph was also donated by Brydges in memory of his great uncle Norman.

“That people understand why these things are done and why they should continue to be done is incredibly important, that the story continues to be told, as far as I’m concerned,” Brydges said. 

Roy Moon was wounded during the liberation of Holland and spent two years in a hospital before recovering.

When Brydges was a student at the University of Guelph he lived with his grandfather and some nights, when the night terrors struck the veteran, the two would sit up together and Brydges would listen to stories from his grandfather.

“He never, ever talked about the war, but I lived with him in university for a while … then I started to learn a bit about the war. Night terrors, sitting up at night and talking about the things he really didn’t want to talk about, but still lived with and dealt with,” Brydges said.

Brydges, who owns Brydges Landscape Architecture Inc., has been involved with recognizing and honouring veterans on several levels, including helping create memorial gardens in Guelph and now in Toronto and being involved with the Vimy Oaks project and the Highway of Heroes Tree Campaign.

“I have a little brief understanding maybe of what it is he had to go through to make Canada what it is and let us do what we love to do today,” Brydges said. 

The tulips were planted last fall as part of the Liberation 75 Commemorative Planting Campaign, which called for 1.1. million tulips to be planted in honour of the 1.1 million Canadians who served in World War II, the 75th anniversary of the end of the war and the liberation of the Netherlands by Canadian troops.


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Tony Saxon

About the Author: Tony Saxon

Tony Saxon has had a rich and varied 30 year career as a journalist, an award winning correspondent, columnist, reporter, feature writer and photographer.
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