Look at those ages. I've wandered around a lot of those meticulously kept cemeteries over the years and it's just the same. Row upon row of names and numbers. Each with a story to tell. A son, brother, father, uncle. Very very moving places. An interesting memorial is the Canadian one at Vimy Ridge. Some of the inscriptions have two surnames, one in brackets i.e. Arnold Lane (HCFC) which I was told at the Visitors Centre, denoted the lads enlisted with a false name usually because they were under 16 years old. And when you look closely there are loads of them. Unbelievable - I was still at school until 16 not fighting a war.
ASLEEP Under his helmet, up against his pack, After so many days of work and waking, Sleep took him by the brow and laid him back. There, in the happy no-time of his sleeping, Death took him by the heart. There heaved a quaking Of the aborted life within him leaping, Then chest and sleepy arms once more fell slack. And soon the slow, stray blood came creeping From the intruding lead, like ants on track. Whether his deeper sleep lie shaded by the shaking Of great wings, and the thoughts that hung the stars, High-pillowed on calm pillows of God's making, Above these clouds, these rains, these sleets of lead, And these winds' scimitars, -Or whether yet his thin and sodden head Confuses more and more with the low mould, His hair being one with the grey grass Of finished fields, and wire-scrags rusty-old, Who knows? Who hopes? Who troubles? Let it pass! He sleeps. He sleeps less tremulous, less cold, Than we who wake, and waking say Alas! Written by Wilfred Owen (18th March 1893 - 4th November 1918) Blown up once, sent home suffering from shell shock. Returned to the Front. Awarded the Military Cross. Killed a week before the war ended. Easier to find his history cos he was a bit better know, but no less typical of so many of them. We shall remember them.
Vimy Ridge is an exceptional place. A little bit of France which will be forever Canada. The preserved trenches can only give a glimpse of what the front must have been like but what strikes most people I've shown round there is how close the front lines were to each other. Less than 30 metres. This wasn't typical but given the artillery used it must have been terrifying. The cemeteries are, as ever in France, immaculate. Many of the stones simply state 'A soldier of the Great War.' Young lads buried unknown a thousand miles from home. The Canadian National Vimy Memorial is awe inspiring. The figure of Canada Bereft mourning her lost sons never fails to bring tears to my eyes. They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old: Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn. At the going down of the sun and in the morning, We will remember them. RIP.
My first World War great-grandfather never got to meet my grandad who served in WW2 because he eventually died of his injuries from the Somme, such a tragedy, luckily my grandad came through unscathed. All those valiant men dying in both World Wars, impossible to imagine how it was for them.
I went to a German cemetery as well, again immaculately kept .... by the French! Simple crosses unlike our headstones. Our headstones are individual, but the Germans cross are shared, the vast majority of them with 4 names on them.
I carried to Royal Marines Association standard at the Portsmouth ceremony of Remembrance yesterday morning in a service starting at 715am. Very moving.
Don't think so. My mothers Oxtobys were long time residents of Beverley and are still there. My Dad and his brother went to Hull Grammar in the 1920s and both were killed in WWII. But our family name is Cass. RIP Dad and Uncle Howard.
Did any of you see what they did in Exeter. Laid out thousands of ceramic dolls each one a life lost on the first day. It is on Facebook. I tried to put a link but I am not techno enough to do it. It really brings the horror of that first day to life and shows the horror of war.
My great-great grandfather and his brother both survived the Somme, only for them both to die later on. My great-great grandfather John Busby died at Oppy wood on the 3rd May 1917 and his older brother Walter died at Arras on the 28th June. I only know this because my nanna told me about the Hull Pals. Their bodies were never recovered. RIP Lance Corporal Busby and Private Busby and all the others that died.
George Edward Milner, East Yorkshire Regiment, Died on the first day, aged 22. Great great great uncle
Yorkshire Post http://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/our-...t/hull-pals-who-fought-side-by-side-1-6611780 John Busby was a lance-corporal in the 12th Battalion while his brother, Walter, was in the 11th Battalion. Both were killed at Oppy Wood, near Arras in 1917. John was killed on the first day of the battle on May 3, and his elder brother the following month. John left a widow and three young children, with a fourth on the way, while Walter left a grieving wife and three children. Both of their photographs are on page 119 of "Hull Pals" by David Bilton. His story is also included in another version. (Page 425). The Hull Daily Mail of 24th May 1917 has an sad advert placed by his wife asking for information,
Been to Oppy Wood a couple of times now, the wood itself is fenced off because it is deemed too dangerous to enter because of live explosives lying around. The village itself is very small and quite, never saw a local soul on either of the two visits. If you are going, research it well beforehand or you won't get a sense of what happened there or how.
I want to visit the memorial at Arras for the missing before I die. It's where my ancestors' names are.
Went there 2 years back - not so far from Oppy. Anyone wanting to dip their toe in the Western Front could do worse than ferry to Zeebrugge, free bus to Bruges then train to Ypres (change at Kortrijk) about 90 mins away. Ypres has Menin Gate, Tyne Cot, Hill 60, Toc H all easy to reach. Plenty of familiar East Yorkshire names on the Menin gate.
