On the way back from Brussels to England I decided to swing south and pay a visit to my Great Uncle Jack, and on the advice of a number of friends I also dropped in and saw a huge number of Canadians in Vimy.
The Canadians at Vimy were of course the dead from the attack on Vimy Ridge on 19th April 1917 and their memorial which has just been totally renovated and is breathtaking in its beauty and the magnitude of the number of people without graves that it commemorates.
I was extremely lucky with the weather, and the fact that the monument has only just reopened after years of renovation.
What was an additional bonus was the fact that there was a band from London Ontario there playing WW1 tunes. When they played the “Last Post” it was a magical moment.
The shear number of names on the monument was staggering,
as was the fact that many of the fields and woods in the surrounding area were still covered in craters of immense proportions and according to the signs full of unexploded ordinance. I visited the trenches just up the road, but because of the number of people there I was unable to see the tunnels the Canadians dug under enemy lines to blow them sky high during the attack.
Afterwards I drove the short distance to the cemetery where my Great Uncle Jack is buried, the British Military Cemetery at Sandpits British Cemetery, Fouquereuil, just outside Bethune
I don't know whether Great Uncle Jack was at the attack on Vimy, but I do know he signed up in 1915 at the age of 19 and died on 14 Aug 1918, just a few months before the end of the war. The citation in the register of the cemetery said he died of wounds and my mother confirmed he died of a head wound in a military hospital.
His tombstone was clean but not particularly easy to read
but as you may be able to read below
it says "12940 Private D J Harvey South Lancashire Regt 14th August 1918".
What may be confusing is that while everyone called him Jack, his Christian name was David, and that is what is on the headstone but the little personalised message at the bottom of the stone "In Ever Loving Memory of my Son Jack R.I.P." makes it clear that this was the right stone.
The Sandpits Cemetery is not very large, just over 350 graves. Though there was room for more, but fortunately the war finished before it was full.
It is a beautiful spot and despite only a handful of visitors every year it was beautifully maintained with flowers everywhere and neatly clipped hedges and a perfect lawn and is very close to the A26, the main road from Calais to Paris. It turns out I must have been in cars driving within a few hundred yards of his grave many many times.
All my photos can be seen on my Fotki Album.
The Canadians at Vimy were of course the dead from the attack on Vimy Ridge on 19th April 1917 and their memorial which has just been totally renovated and is breathtaking in its beauty and the magnitude of the number of people without graves that it commemorates.
I was extremely lucky with the weather, and the fact that the monument has only just reopened after years of renovation.
What was an additional bonus was the fact that there was a band from London Ontario there playing WW1 tunes. When they played the “Last Post” it was a magical moment.The shear number of names on the monument was staggering,
as was the fact that many of the fields and woods in the surrounding area were still covered in craters of immense proportions and according to the signs full of unexploded ordinance. I visited the trenches just up the road, but because of the number of people there I was unable to see the tunnels the Canadians dug under enemy lines to blow them sky high during the attack.Afterwards I drove the short distance to the cemetery where my Great Uncle Jack is buried, the British Military Cemetery at Sandpits British Cemetery, Fouquereuil, just outside Bethune
I don't know whether Great Uncle Jack was at the attack on Vimy, but I do know he signed up in 1915 at the age of 19 and died on 14 Aug 1918, just a few months before the end of the war. The citation in the register of the cemetery said he died of wounds and my mother confirmed he died of a head wound in a military hospital.
His tombstone was clean but not particularly easy to read
but as you may be able to read below
it says "12940 Private D J Harvey South Lancashire Regt 14th August 1918".
What may be confusing is that while everyone called him Jack, his Christian name was David, and that is what is on the headstone but the little personalised message at the bottom of the stone "In Ever Loving Memory of my Son Jack R.I.P." makes it clear that this was the right stone.
The Sandpits Cemetery is not very large, just over 350 graves. Though there was room for more, but fortunately the war finished before it was full.
It is a beautiful spot and despite only a handful of visitors every year it was beautifully maintained with flowers everywhere and neatly clipped hedges and a perfect lawn and is very close to the A26, the main road from Calais to Paris. It turns out I must have been in cars driving within a few hundred yards of his grave many many times.
All my photos can be seen on my Fotki Album.
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