Commonwealth war graves

Wort a visit is the stunning Ring of Remembrance – L’Anneau de la Mémoire – inscribed with 580,000 names of all nationalities who died in WW1 and opened for the centenary near the French National Cemetery of Notre Dame de Lorette, along with an excellent museum. All the names are in alphabetic order and I found 2 relatives names here.

I visited Thiepval 10 yrs ago with my brother we found my paternal Grandfather on the memorial. He died on the Somme, my Nan was pregnant when he left so my Dad never met his father so very sad. It was a very emotional visit and i found it profoundly sad wandering round the grounds.

RosiesMaw

Don’t forget War graves are to be seen in UK churchyards too.
They are instantly recognisable as they are identical to the ones we have seen in France, Belgium etc.

I haven’t seen it as I’ve never been to the area but my mother’s aunt is buried in a Commonwealth War Grave. She nursed soldiers with Spanish Flu in a military hospital and subsequently succumbed to the disease herself.

Another war grave we have not seen and are unlikely to see is in North Africa. My dh’s uncle who was in the RAF was posted as MIA during the campaign in NA and the family never heard of him again. We only learnt in recent years that according to records the fate of he and his fellow crew members had eventually been uncovered. Sadly, MIL had died before we knew what had happened to her beloved only brother.

In 1915 DH and I visited the war graves of the 3 members of my family, 2 great uncles and a cousin, who died during the Battle of Ypres. two have graves, one is mentioned on the Menin Gate.

In 1919 we went down to Marseilles to visit the war grave of my grandfather in a cemetery there. He survived the war, was returning home from Salonika but caught the Spanish Flu on the troop ship going from Salonika to Marseilles and died in a military hospital in Marseilles.

Don’t forget War graves are to be seen in UK churchyards too.
They are instantly recognisable as they are identical to the ones we have seen in France, Belgium etc.

I remember motor caravanning near the landing beaches and cemeteries and dragging a reluctant teenager around them a few decades ago.

She now brags to her children about how well travelled she was and she saw her great great uncle’s grave in France!

Kanchanaburi in Thailand, beautifully maintained and the nearby museum of letters and personal belongings heartbreaking.

Often go to Belgium as my chum has a house there, so many graves, all heartbreaking, so young so much loss.
Been to the French ones too, I'm always in bits reading them, also the book of graves that's kept there, some have little handwritten notes.. More than one, stating Father of the child born after his death. Heartbreaking so sad.

We are in northern France at the moment & tonight at the restaurant there were 3 chaps with D Day tee shirts on. At the end of the meal I could not resist chatting to them. They were proud to tell me that they were ex servicemen here to represent the uk in the celebrations tomorrow. I felt very humble & even proud especially when they said that people in the street were stopping them to shake their hands in thanks.

My son and I did a Dambusters tour a few years ago which was excellent. We visited quite a few war graves sites, so many were so young, and killed in such a short space of time, it was overwhelming. The war graves that touched me most though were those of Guy Gibson and Jim Warwick in Steenbergen, maintained by locals.

Yes in France and in Greece. Beautifully maintained

I visited them many years ago and it was one of the most poignant experiences of my life. My grandfather was killed at the Battle of the Somme and his name is on the Thiepval Memorial. I wanted to go because I was the first member of my family able to do so. I felt I was doing it for my grandmother and father( long deceased) .I also went to Arras where his brother , my great uncle ,is commemorated .My poor grandmother: losing two sons within three months of each other and another son taken as a POW. It felt like a kind of pilgrimage .

We visited war graves in the area around Ypres in 2001 - it was a group coach arranged by our family history society and I felt overwhelmed too, there is such a lot of them. We mostly went to ones where people had a special interest One of the people who came was almost 90 years old (her daughter came with her) and she visited the grave of her father - he had been the village postman and was nearly 50 years old and had volunteered. There was also a visit to the Arras memorial - where my great uncle was commemorated - he was killed in action and had no known grave.