9 April 2009

Easter Saturday - The Family War Grave Trail

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 late Father and Grandfather got this information long before the Internet and we have been before, but it was a long time ago and we didn't have much chance to stay and reflect.

I'm hoping for part way decent weather but it is still early April and liable to be wet in Northern France.

Update 22nd February 2018

I wanted to pass the details of these two heroes to a friend and found that the CWGC had changed the web URL for both the men. So I got the dreaded 404 error!


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