On the Road Again!

I have been looking for sometime for information on my wife Claire's family in Ireland.  These men are not  a band of renegades but four brothers that joined the British Army and fought in WW1. We have tracked some of the progress of Timothy, the eldest of the bunch. Clicking on the tag will take you to other posts. But to add to them is the photo from the local newspaper in Cork (Corcaigh) that is in the Republic of Ireland. When they signed up, albeit to Irish regiments, it was still part of the UK. Timothy is top left. As it says on the clipping Timothy was MIA. He was never found and is one of many casualties that day in October 1914. Another excerpt from a newspaper is below. This was sent to me by the curator/researcher at the Irish Regiments Museum. " Cork Examiner. 21/10/1914. 5252. Timothy Leary, Dublin Hill, was summoned by Constable Keeffe for having been drunk and disorderly at Dublin Hill on the 9th October. Complainant said the defendant was disorder...

With the centenary of the end of WW1 coming very soon. I thought I'd post this little snippet from the KSLI Regimental Museum in Shrewsbury. It's filled in a few details of what little we know about William. "William died 99 years ago. He landed in France with the 2nd Battalion on 21-12-14, at some point moved to the 1st Batt., wounded with the 1st Batt. about 6th or 7th Jan 1916 while in trenches in La Brique left sector. I do not know when he joined the 7th Batt." As far as I know La Brique is on the Ypres Salient. I'll have to check the maps and the KSLI Regimental history book. P.S. It's 102 years now. Update 29/10/2018 This is from the KSLI website.  The 2nd Battalion arrival date at le Havre tallies with the above note from the museum's curator. https://www.shropshireregimentalmuseum.co.uk/regimental-history/shropshire-light-infantry/the-kings-shropshire-light-infantry-1914-1918/ As for being wounded whil...

These are the places that I have added to the weekend. I expect I have over-engineered it as I normally do, so there may be places that we can remove "on the hoof" if we are running out of time. I'll have the route for TomTom ITN and a .GPX copy available soon. Some links. Pals at Sheffield Park Ocean Villas - Auchonvillers really! Newfoundland Memorial Ulster Tower Tank Memorial / Australian Memorial Pozieres Pozieres British Cemetery / Memorial to the Missing Froissy-Dompierre Light Railway Historical Peronne Souvenir Francaise Rancourt

Once clear of the terminal I set the satnav for Péronne. We knew it would be too late for lunch and so we stopped at the Aire de Rely for lunch. We had been driving with the lid down and the temp gauge hovering about 31 degrees. It was to get hotter. After a quick lunch of steack haché we were off again. By Péronne it was 35 degrees. The museum is housed in the old feudal castle. It isn't air conditioned and was like an oven inside. We had to have a tea afterwards to cool our blood. It got hotter as we headed south to rejoin the A1 and peaked at 39 degrees in the area near the hotel. I took a picture of the on-dash temperature display to prove it. 39 degrees It was so hot we had a few cold showers before heading into town to scope a restaurant. We booked a table at the Bistrot bu Boucher. A quick and refreshing beer across the road helped cool us for two minutes!! Dinner in all it's glory in the pictures. Captions to follow. Now back at the hotel in the s...

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.

After a leisurely breakfast the plan was to go into the town for a look around, then to Vimy and Lille for lunch. As we were very leisurely things changed. Firstly as we left the parking the barrier came down so quick I got left behind as the others shot off. The guy in the control box opened it for me! In town there wasn't much to see on a Sunday morning, and after a walk around to look for a chocolate shop we had a coffee and changed the plan. Still Vimy Ridge but Cassel for lunch rather than Lille. So we set off on Plan B. Betsy was still playing up so it was me to lead again - b*llocks. Despite the criticism of the day before - okay, I did go through a red light, but in mitigation it was as I was on the outside of an old t*sser in a car and saw the pedestrian light go green and shot off. No one got hurt - I led us out of the town, via a petrol station and then on the direct route to the Canadian Monument. I don't accept the criticism that I don't give way at roundabouts...

After a leisurely breakfast the plan was to go into the town for a look around, then to Vimy and Lille for lunch. As we were very leisurely things changed. Firstly as we left the parking the barrier came down so quick I got left behind as the others shot off. The guy in the control box opened it for me! In town there wasn't much to see on a Sunday morning, and after a walk around to look for a chocolate shop we had a coffee and changed the plan. Still Vimy Ridge but Cassel for lunch rather than Lille. So we set off on Plan B. Betsy was still playing up so it was me to lead again - b*llocks. Despite the criticism of the day before - okay, I did go through a red light, but in mitigation it was as I was on the outside of an old t*sser in a car and saw the pedestrian light go green and shot off. No one got hurt - I led us out of the town, via a petrol station and then on the direct route to the Canadian Monument. I don't accept the criticism that I don't give way at roundabouts...

Probably, for the first time ever we arrived with plenty of time to spare at the Shuttle terminal at Cheriton! But, sadly, the recently introduced "self check-in" was defeating the hordes car drivers that were unable to stretch their arms far enough to reach the touch-screens and who had parked too close to get their doors open to get out and do it. It doesn't seem like rocket science to use the stats off the booking system to know the peaks and troughs of travel and to make sure that they have humans working at those times. In the end we made it around to the terminal building where Nigel & Jane (Triumph Sprint) and Simon & Denise (Blackbird) were waiting. For once we managed to avoid the security check and went straight through to the queues to get on the train. In the end, due to some problem that was never defined, the 0828 train was full despite around fifty cars and us with the right letter still waiting in the queue, so we got "priority" on the 08...

Probably, for the first time ever we arrived with plenty of time to spare at the Shuttle terminal at Cheriton! But, sadly, the recently introduced "self check-in" was defeating the hordes car drivers that were unable to stretch their arms far enough to reach the touch-screens and who had parked too close to get their doors open to get out and do it. It doesn't seem like rocket science to use the stats off the booking system to know the peaks and troughs of travel and to make sure that they have humans working at those times. In the end we made it around to the terminal building where Nigel & Jane (Triumph Sprint) and Simon & Denise (Blackbird) were waiting. For once we managed to avoid the security check and went straight through to the queues to get on the train. In the end, due to some problem that was never defined, the 0828 train was full despite around fifty cars and us with the right letter still waiting in the queue, so we got "priority" on the 08...

The Battle of the Somme began in the early hours of the 1st July 1916. "The Big Push" that would throw the German Army back towards Belgium from the line running across Picardy. The offensive started with a huge bombardment to drive the enemy back from his forward trenches and cut the miles and miles of barbed wire that lay across no mans land. A partly successful barrage left many of the brave men that climbed out of their trenches that morning with nowhere to go and they were mowed down before reaching their objective. At that time, the reserve and the next group of troops to move towards the line were still arriving. They moved by night so that air recon couldn't pin them down. My Uncle William was 26. Although born and bred in South London he found himself a private in the 7th Battalion Kings Shropshire Light Infantry. They arrived on the Ancre River near Corbié on the 12/13th July. On the 13th, they moved into the line and then were to assault Bazentin Ridge. Once ag...

The Battle of the Somme began in the early hours of the 1st July 1916. "The Big Push" that would throw the German Army back towards Belgium from the line running across Picardy. The offensive started with a huge bombardment to drive the enemy back from his forward trenches and cut the miles and miles of barbed wire that lay across no mans land. A partly successful barrage left many of the brave men that climbed out of their trenches that morning with nowhere to go and they were mowed down before reaching their objective. At that time, the reserve and the next group of troops to move towards the line were still arriving. They moved by night so that air recon couldn't pin them down. My Uncle William was 26. Although born and bred in South London he found himself a private in the 7th Battalion Kings Shropshire Light Infantry. They arrived on the Ancre River near Corbié on the 12/13th July. On the 13th, they moved into the line and then were to assault Bazentin Ridge. Once ag...

There were six of us on the Flanders Day trip. We went across country to Poperinge (twinned with Hythe where I live) and then Ypres. Nigel and Jane Jones, John Bentall and his wife Anne, and Claire and me. This was the trip that got us intereste din days and then weekends away on the bike as a small group, derawn from the IMTC and SOC locally. THe pics are from Talbot House in Poperinge and of the Menin Gate in Ypres

The original plan for Easter was to spend the day in Belgium with the GS Club UK at the GS weekend at Kasterlee. As it was only a week after coming back from the US, I had to cancel those plans. But the bike needed a 20000km service before the Czech Trip... and so I decided to see about a service in France and use the ferry ticket for that instead. I searched on the BMW France site for a dealership in the north of France. Purely to see if it was cheaper than in the UK. In the end I booked in to Europ' Touring in Arras. In France both 6000 miles and 12000 miles services are about 40% cheaper than the UK. Even with the cost of a cheap crossing over or under the channel it would be cheaper. And as I was less than happy at the standard of the service done at SPC at 6000 miles, plus the place was in the middle of nowhere and had no loan bike on offer (to me at least!) despite buying the GS from them! SO, a dealership in a town had to be better. Patrice, the owner, lent us a Scarver 650 ...

The original plan for Easter was to spend the day in Belgium with the GS Club UK at the GS weekend at Kasterlee. As it was only a week after coming back from the US, I had to cancel those plans. But the bike needed a 20000km service before the Czech Trip... and so I decided to see about a service in France and use the ferry ticket for that instead. I searched on the BMW France site for a dealership in the north of France. Purely to see if it was cheaper than in the UK. In the end I booked in to Europ' Touring in Arras. In France both 6000 miles and 12000 miles services are about 40% cheaper than the UK. Even with the cost of a cheap crossing over or under the channel it would be cheaper. And as I was less than happy at the standard of the service done at SPC at 6000 miles, plus the place was in the middle of nowhere and had no loan bike on offer (to me least!) despite buying the GS from them! So, a dealership in a town had to be better. Patri...