On the Road Again!

Today Claire and I along with my brother Neill and his wife, Catherine, went to a guided tour and talk from an expert to Shornecliffe Military Cemetery. Steve the Guide gave us some history and the backgrounds to many of the servicemen buried there since it opened in 1856.

Homeward bound I wish I was Homeward bound Home where my thought's escapin' Home where my music's playin' Home where my love lies waitin' Silently for me (Thanks to Simon & Garfunkel) We had to be out of the cottage at 9am, and after a restless night we were up and the car packed with  5 minutes to spare. The plan was to go to Monks Eleigh to visit Claire's cousins before  heading to the A12. Ready for the Off! Whilst  in Monks  Eleigh I took Reggie  for a turn around the churchyard.  I saw a sign to say that there were some Commonwealth War Graves in there, St Peters Church.  There were two well tended graves with  the traditional white Portland Stone headstones. Reggie had a snuffle around the long grass and hedges .  We had tea and biscuits and then all too soon we had to leave. Expecting traffic to be awful we left before 1pm. An aborted stop at the overflowing car park opposite Colchester United's football ground later, we eventuall...

It looks as though we have visited the wrong T O'Leary!   Claire's Dad, Victor,  had a grave reference for a T O'Leary who could/would have been one of his uncles killed on the Western Front in 1915. Where he got this from I have no idea, possibly from his brother Mick. I located the cemetery from the name and service number and off we went for a day trip. This was probably 10 years ago. Wanting to find out more I found the Royal Irish Rifles and all the other former British Irish regiments were now under the banner of the Royal Ulster Regiment.  They have a website and some volunteers that find what they can for people inquiring. I got a long email yesterday with loads of photos and copies of documents based on the name, regiment and service number.  It came back as Thomas O'Leary born in Stepney, not Timothy O'Leary born in Cork! I wrote back and thanked them for all their work and told them of the name difference. I said t...

The bane of the blogger's life?  Looking at old posts to get some information and you click on the link and get the dreaded 404 message appears!  Aaarrgghh! It happens to me when I went to  http://invictamoto.blogspot.co.uk/2009/04/easter-saturday-family-war-grave-trail.html to pick up the URL's on two of our relatives that are buried in France in WW1. I ended up having to go to the CWGC website and re-entering all the details to get the new and correct links. Grrrr. I updated the original posting with an "Update" at the so as not to spoil the original alliteration. Job done.

This is the third poppy posted.  Sgt Timothy O'Leary is Claire's Grandmother's older brother, killed at Windy Corner near Bethune in September 1915.

William Devall For most of this years battlefield visitors the date they will be heading to the Somme will be July 1st.  This is the 95th anniversary of the first battle of the Somme back in 1916. My visit is slightly different. I will be making the trip to visit the grave of my Grandfather's cousin William Devall.  Although born in London, William was sent to the Kings Own Shropshire Light Infantry.  This regiment is better known as the posting of the war poet Sigfried Sassoon. The KSLI missed the opening day of the slaughter and arrived to take up their position as part of the second wave.  We don't know where William was wounded but he died of his wounds on July 16th 1916. He is buried in the Extension for the Corbie Communal Cemetery.

The trip across to France was yesterday and in practice for the Ypres trip where there will be loads of us, I tested using POI66 for real. It worked a treat and when I got home I was able to edit the entries sent by SMS to make more sense. See it here . There she is...... , originally uploaded by Getzgirl .

We had loads of plans for Easter Saturday; always across in France, but instead of a weekend we have made it into a day trip. I also changed the Shuttle to go a bit later as the original crossing was based on going to Paris or further afield. Instead, we will confine ourselves to Nord-Pas-de-Calais and take a look at a couple of war graves from our families. Firstly after breakfast, we'll go and find Claire's Grannie's brother, Timothy O'Leary. We know where he is buried as her Uncle Michael told us. Otherwise it is a very common name! Not just the O'Leary bit, but initial T is common as well. However, the Commonwealth War Graves Commission has him listed at http://www.cwgc.org/search/casualty_details.aspx?casualty=195250 . After that we will go across to Armentières to see a small cemetery behind a farm where my Granddad Charlie's cousin Charles Devall is buried. He is at http://www.cwgc.org/search/casualty_details.aspx?casualty=573221 . My la...