NOTSHARP
master brummie
Some may remember my thread of my search to find my Grandfather. https://birminghamhistory.co.uk/forum/index.php?threads/finding-my-grandfather.56173/
This is a brief account of my visit to his grave, earlier this year.
In 2016, plan A was made for a trip to France. I had finally found out about my Paternal grandfather. He lost his life, killed in the First World War, and was buried at Gouzeaucourt New British Cemetery
.
Plan A entailed booked flights, hotel, car hire, etc., but life got in the way, and the plan was shelved.
Fast forward to 2023, and Plan B was set in motion. This time, however, it would be different. I no longer liked the idea of flying, and driving myself, so decided on a guided option.
I contacted Sophie, of Sophies Great War Tours https://www.sophiesgreatwartours.com/
And Plan B was made.
Sophie collected my wife and I from where we were staying in Worcestershire, promptly at 08:00 hrs., on Sunday 14th. May. We drove South, heading for the Channel tunnel.
The weather was kind, and the drive down to The Somme, pleasant, with Sophie being a mine of information on the Great War.
A couple of hours being guided by such a knowledgeable and enthusiastic expert was a grand start to our trip.
We visited Thiepval memorial to the missing, which was a humbling experience.
The memorial lists the names of THE MISSING. 72000+ of the ones never found. In places, a name has been erased. Twenty to thirty remains are found every year. If they can be identified, which is not often, their name on the list of "missing" can be removed.
We awoke on our second day, after a very pleasant evening at our B&B, to find that it was Somme weather. A steady, light rain, which, somehow, seemed appropriate.
My long standing Pal passed away at the beginning of this year. I was able to get to see him, some five days before he died. His Grandfather had also died in WW1, and I told him that, when we went to France, we would visit his grave. Hence, that was out first priority on this wet morning.
Serjeant John Jolly was killed on 23 August 1918.
Making this visit, and honouring both my friend, and his Grandfather, was more emotional for me than visiting my Grandfather's grave. Funny old world, isn't it?
On to my Grandfather's grave, at Gouzencourt New British Cemetery.
Like many others, this cemetery had changed hands a few times during the fighting. Shelled, and blown-up. Bodies re-buried, etc.
A light rain was falling when we arrived. After waiting such a long time, I knew where my Grandfather's grave was located, and headed straight to it.
My wife, and our guide, left me alone, which was appreciated. I had put such a lot of effort into finding him, that is was, somehow, an anticlimax to finally be there, able to touch the stone, beneath which he lay.
As far as I know, no other family member has visited his grave.
I may well be the first and last, to deem it a duty to do so. I hope that I am wrong.
During my initial research, I was able to find out from CWGC, where he was buried on the battlefield, and, two years later, exhumed, to be re-buried in his current location.
I managed to get a map reference from the Army record, and was keen to try and find it.
The initial plan was a no-go, due to heavy rainfall making access, shall we say, difficult.
For once, modern farming had helped. A farmer had made a hard track to a small man-made pond, used for irrigation of crops. The track could not have been better placed.
From the Battalion war diary, I knew what their movements were on 1st.December, 1917, the day that my Grandfather died. They were advancing, across open ground, to push the enemy out of the village of Gouzencourt.
You do have to see it, to understand just what "open ground" was.
Imagine, if you can, advancing, under fire, across this.
Not benign farmland, but torn to shreds by shell fire, masses of wire, dead and dying men and screams of the wounded. It beggars belief.
It would seem from the diaries, and where he was buried, that my Grandfather, probably, came under fire from Quentin Mill, which was under German control, and protected by machine-gun emplacements.
I had an access route planned to the location of my Grandfather's battlefield burial.
The plan was to go via a track though the small wood in the distance of this picture.
Heavy rain had made that a non option. Luck was on my side, however, as a track had been laid to an irrigation pond, that could not have been better.
We were able to get within a few yards of the position of his battlefield burial, as given in the Army records.
I am so glad that I made the trip. As far as I know, I am the only family member to have visited his grave in 106 years.
We Shall Remember Them.
Steve.
This is a brief account of my visit to his grave, earlier this year.
In 2016, plan A was made for a trip to France. I had finally found out about my Paternal grandfather. He lost his life, killed in the First World War, and was buried at Gouzeaucourt New British Cemetery
.
Plan A entailed booked flights, hotel, car hire, etc., but life got in the way, and the plan was shelved.
Fast forward to 2023, and Plan B was set in motion. This time, however, it would be different. I no longer liked the idea of flying, and driving myself, so decided on a guided option.
I contacted Sophie, of Sophies Great War Tours https://www.sophiesgreatwartours.com/
And Plan B was made.
Sophie collected my wife and I from where we were staying in Worcestershire, promptly at 08:00 hrs., on Sunday 14th. May. We drove South, heading for the Channel tunnel.
The weather was kind, and the drive down to The Somme, pleasant, with Sophie being a mine of information on the Great War.
A couple of hours being guided by such a knowledgeable and enthusiastic expert was a grand start to our trip.
We visited Thiepval memorial to the missing, which was a humbling experience.
The memorial lists the names of THE MISSING. 72000+ of the ones never found. In places, a name has been erased. Twenty to thirty remains are found every year. If they can be identified, which is not often, their name on the list of "missing" can be removed.
We awoke on our second day, after a very pleasant evening at our B&B, to find that it was Somme weather. A steady, light rain, which, somehow, seemed appropriate.
My long standing Pal passed away at the beginning of this year. I was able to get to see him, some five days before he died. His Grandfather had also died in WW1, and I told him that, when we went to France, we would visit his grave. Hence, that was out first priority on this wet morning.
Serjeant John Jolly was killed on 23 August 1918.
Making this visit, and honouring both my friend, and his Grandfather, was more emotional for me than visiting my Grandfather's grave. Funny old world, isn't it?
On to my Grandfather's grave, at Gouzencourt New British Cemetery.
Like many others, this cemetery had changed hands a few times during the fighting. Shelled, and blown-up. Bodies re-buried, etc.
A light rain was falling when we arrived. After waiting such a long time, I knew where my Grandfather's grave was located, and headed straight to it.
My wife, and our guide, left me alone, which was appreciated. I had put such a lot of effort into finding him, that is was, somehow, an anticlimax to finally be there, able to touch the stone, beneath which he lay.
As far as I know, no other family member has visited his grave.
I may well be the first and last, to deem it a duty to do so. I hope that I am wrong.
During my initial research, I was able to find out from CWGC, where he was buried on the battlefield, and, two years later, exhumed, to be re-buried in his current location.
I managed to get a map reference from the Army record, and was keen to try and find it.
The initial plan was a no-go, due to heavy rainfall making access, shall we say, difficult.
For once, modern farming had helped. A farmer had made a hard track to a small man-made pond, used for irrigation of crops. The track could not have been better placed.
From the Battalion war diary, I knew what their movements were on 1st.December, 1917, the day that my Grandfather died. They were advancing, across open ground, to push the enemy out of the village of Gouzencourt.
You do have to see it, to understand just what "open ground" was.
Imagine, if you can, advancing, under fire, across this.
Not benign farmland, but torn to shreds by shell fire, masses of wire, dead and dying men and screams of the wounded. It beggars belief.
It would seem from the diaries, and where he was buried, that my Grandfather, probably, came under fire from Quentin Mill, which was under German control, and protected by machine-gun emplacements.
I had an access route planned to the location of my Grandfather's battlefield burial.
The plan was to go via a track though the small wood in the distance of this picture.
Heavy rain had made that a non option. Luck was on my side, however, as a track had been laid to an irrigation pond, that could not have been better.
We were able to get within a few yards of the position of his battlefield burial, as given in the Army records.
I am so glad that I made the trip. As far as I know, I am the only family member to have visited his grave in 106 years.
We Shall Remember Them.
Steve.
