Today I shall be Mainly...

[Stanley]

Nothing Kev. Just say it's an early Xmas present. It's a decent chair, just totally wrong for me. Come round and take my mistake away!
Playing in the shed as usual. I'm safe in there!

[Big Kev]

Many thanks. There will be some very pleased grandchildren.

[Sue]

You may not have liked your chair Stanley but you inspired me to look on Amazon and I have bought a rather nice adjustable swivel chair on wheels for my sewing room

[Stanley]

I hope it's high enough for you Sue! Good luck with it. It was a pleasure to see it go for a useful purpose.....
Remembering my granddad at eleven o'clock.

[Sue]

I have a couple of those. My uncle and great uncle.

[Moh]

We have one for hubby's uncle Fred. plus various communications when they moved his body from a temporary cemetery to a permanent one, also the funeral penny. He died on 31st October 1918 - so near and yet so far.

[Stanley]

Granddad made it until 1 February 1917.... Here's his new grave, this must have been taken at the time and of course well before everything was tidied up by the War Graves Commission.
Today is stick welding! It will be interesting, I am not a good welder!

[Sue]

That is a moving photo Stanley.

Today is a sewing lesson day with a little more being done on my jacket. So far so good. I have done a practice run of the skirt to go with it, in a different fabric and am pleased with the fit.

After sewing a prolonged lunch with friends, our weekly treat because it is Friday !

[Stanley]

That's what I think as well Sue, it's more immediate than the manicured cemeteries we are used to now.



This is a later pic of the extension at Bailleul civic cemetery in about 1920. What interests me is the large monuments in the background, no doubt placed there by wealthy relatives. They must have been upset when individual monuments like that were banned as Lutyens concept of equality in death was put into effect.
I wrote an article yesterday and so I can go in the shed with a clear conscience, have my dinner and a sleep and watch F1 Qualifying this afternoon....

[PanBiker]

The ones in the background could be an existing cemetery. Lots of burials were made on the periphery or within existing cemeteries. Sally's great uncle Tom who was killed two days before the armistice is buried in a small corner of the local community cemetery. The CWGC plot where he lies along with about 20 others is perfectly manicured green, the rest of the cemetery is gravel paths and large monuments and stones as is the norm in France. There are about six German combatants buried in a small separate plot alongside our lads as well.

[Moh]

Hubby's uncle is in one of the manicured graves in Vichte Military cemetery in Belgium. A guy contacted me on the Great War Forum who lives in the village near where it is, and took photos. of the grave & the area where the battle took place. He also asked for a photo. of Fred which he will put on the grave with flowers every Armistice Day. Apparently he does this for other families as well/

[Stanley]

A bit like the Menin Gate Moh, daily remembrance not just once a year....
Watching the weather through the shed window.....

[Sue]

I have always wondered about these cemeteries. My mums fiancé is is in one near the Belgiam border. All neat rows, numbered etc. But surely it wasn't there when he died. Where was he buried when he died. Did they move his remains. I suppose I am naive about this.

[PanBiker]

Sue, have a look here for the full story:

Commonwealth War Graves Commission

[Moh]

Fred's uncle was moved but not very far. The grave next to him is Walter Lund from Foulridge who was killed on the same day, in the same battle.

[PanBiker]

Sally's Gt Uncle Thomas is very similar Moh. The CWGC plot in the little village cemetery up near the Belgian border is not far at all from where he was mortally wounded and eventually succumbed to his injuries. The regimental record of the action he was engaged in says that they were tasked with assaulting a German held position in a small hamlet that you can actually see from the gates of the cemetery, its just the width of a field away. The family were told and always believed that he was killed outright by a German sniper, we subsequently found out that he was seriously wounded on the 9th November 1918 but died 4 days later after cessation of hostilities on the 13th in a nearby field hospital, he was all of 19 years of age. Sally's dad was named after him, Thomas Henry.

[Stanley]

The field hospital where granddad died was at Bailleul so they started a burial ground nearby as an extension of the town cemetery.

[Moh]

I emailed Stanley and asked him to put two photos. on the wrong topic - they are of Uncle Fred's grave and the cemetery at Vitche where he is buried - they are on 'What attracted your attention' topic.

[Wendyf]

Here they are Moh:

[PanBiker]

Snap Wendy, I have just moved them from the other topic too, great minds think alike.

[Wendyf]

Ha, I didn't realise you had already posted them Ian.

[PanBiker]

I have deleted the ones I moved it makes the topic flow better. We must have been doing it at the same time Wendy.

[Moh]

Thanks for that - they are Uncle Fred's grave and Vitche Military Cemetery where he is buried. He was wounded at the Third Ypres Battle of Pilkem Ridge on 3rd Sept. 1917 , sent home then returned to France to join the 24th Denbighshire Yeomen Battalion . On the day he was killed (31 Oct. 1918) the battalion advanced W.E. of Gaister, in Belgium, capturing 10 field guns and taking 250 prisoners. The battalion lost 14 men that day. All this info. was given me by someone on the Great War Forum.

[Stanley]

All becomes clear.... Glad they eventually finished up in the right place....
You all know where I'll be, engine building in the shed.

[Sue]

Driving to catch the ferry to France for a week of tidying up and closing up for the winter. Expecting tight passport control