[joe-ks.com doesn’t always poke fun at our Newfie friends – here, courtesy of a Wales reader, we offer ‘the other side of the coin’ - an excerpt from the Daily Mail, biggest selling newspaper in Britain, July 1, 2006…]

“In Memory of the Newfoundlanders and Labradorians who fought at the Battle of Beaumont Hamel on the 1st July 1916, the first day of the Battle of the Somme.

The Newfoundland Regiment, now the Royal Newfoundland Regiment, was decimated (*) in the attack. Seven hundred and ten of the 790 officers and men who went into action became casualties: 272 were killed, died of their wounds or were missing and presumed dead, and 438 others were wounded. The British Army suffered 57,500 casualties that morning: no unit paid a greater toll than the Newfoundland Regiment. We remember their gallantry and heroism. They were better than the best.”

(*) Since decimation was a Roman legionary punishment in which one in ten soldiers were killed for cowardice of similar, this term is hardly appropriate for these poor souls. They were immeasurably braver and died in much greater proportion (about 3.5 in every ten).