Les Alouettes

Vic in full flow describing the VC action of Edwin Dwyer. He is stood behind VC Dwyer’s grave in Flatiron Copse military cemetery on the Somme. His VC was won on Hill 60 in Flanders in 1915.

With our new gite, Fairbanks, which we rent out in the heart of the Somme battlefields we never expected to have stay a relative of William Fairbank. Fairbanks was named after William’s ancestor who planted fruit trees after the Great War in our village, Hardecourt Aux Bois. He was a doctor to the Royal family in Windsor. We are looking forward to welcoming the family again in the future.

We remember 2nd Lieutenant Charles Horace Larkins of the Duke of Cambridge’s Own (Middlesex) Regiment who died of wounds in the Battle of Cambrai 100 years ago today and is commemorated on the Louverval Memorial to the Missing. He was just 21 years old and after enlisting as a Private in 1915 had already been promoted to 2nd Lieutenant by 1917. He survived July 1st 1916 near Beaumont Hamel and then was sent off for Officer training.

He enlisted in the Public School’s Battalion although his family did not have the means to send Charles to public school and so he may have won a scholarship to attend. His family are currently trying to locate which school he attended prior to going off to war.

Yesterday, we took the family to the area where he was wounded and attended some of the commemorative events in and around Cambrai yesterday evening.

Rest in Peace Charles.

A wonderful day with Chris Hodges and friends from Northern Ireland. During the tour we visited Guillemont Church and the 16th Irish Division Memorial on the Somme. We remembered too the significance of the centenary of the Battle of Messines Ridge where for the first time the 36th Ulster Division and the 16th Irish Division fought together side by side. They were here too to remember a long lost ancestor who died on the 21st March 1918 Rifleman Charles Tweedie 15th Battalion Royal Irish Rifles and who has no known grave. He is commemorated at Pozieres. He enlisted at the young age of 14. Rest in Peace Charles.

A wonderful tour of Thiepval wood and trenches with an exceptional attentive school, Carmadean primary school from Livingston in Scotland. The photograph is taken in front of the Ulster Tower Memorial.

Great two days with the Royal Mons RE. Highlight yesterday was visiting the OP the regiment built at Hussar Farm100 years before and meeting the duty cat…

Despite the morning rain it went on to be a beautiful day on the battlefields with my Royal Monmouthshire Royal Engineer group. Visited three of their fallen comrades on the Salient and two more to see today – hopefully with the sunshine continuing…

Thought I was bringing a dog back from Verdun tonight. This dog was wandering seemingly lost at Hill 304. I thought it had been perhaps abandoned but it had a collar with a mobile number which I called and it was reunited with its owner. Various Leger passengers in the meantime fed it biscuits. His name was Chippy…