Sapling Rescued From Passchendaele Nominated As Tree Of The Year

Image credit: Niall Benvie/WTML

A sapling rescued from the devastation of Passchendaele is in the running to be voted Britain’s favourite tree.

The Spruce is named after the man who rescued it, Lieutenant David McCabe, who pulled it from the mud of no-man’s land and sent it home to his family in Perthshire.

Sadly, David himself died from wounds sustained in battle in 1917, but the tree lives on as a legacy of his, and so many others’, sacrifice.

From left: Eric McCabe, nephew of David, wife of James McCabe, and James McCabe, great nephew of David. 

The David McCabe spruce has now been listed amongst some of the country’s finest tree specimens and will be entered into next year’s European Tree Of The Year competition.

The saplings were sent home in an ammunition box, accompanied by a letter which read:

“Owing to the amount of shell, rifle and machine gun fire which the place has been subject to, practically nothing is alive which is any taller than the trees I sent [...] some of the fiercest fighting of the war having taken place in their vicinity"

Today David’s tree stands as a magnificent living memorial at Abercairny Estate, Crieff.

In summer 2017 a wreath was fashioned from its cones, and a team of cadets cycled from Crieff to France to lay it on the grave of Lieut. McCabe.