45 replies to this topic

[Bernard_Lewis]

Hopefully Mametz Wood on 10 July 2016 (not forgetting the earlier actions there).

'Today I found in Mametz Wood
A certain cure for lust of blood...'
(Robert Graves who only passed through the wood after the fighting was over)

Bernard

[Connor]

I'll be sure to attend those places meaningful to me in 2013 or earlier and then 2019 when everyone is gone and I can see these places in peace.

[Broznitsky]

MichaelBully, on 10 October 2010 - 10:01 AM, said:

I e mailed my local councillor to see if our local authority are going to do anything.  He said that he had already been thinking this over, and promised to raise the matter with the leader of the Council and then get back to me. So I will wait to see what transpires.

I've begun similar discussions with our Corporation (=Council) and our Museum.

Peter in B.C.

[MichaelBully]

Hello Peter

Please keep me updated on your progress. Would welcome any ideas on what our counci/corporation can do.

Regards

Michael Bully

Broznitsky, on 11 October 2010 - 02:14 PM, said:

I've begun similar discussions with our Corporation (=Council) and our Museum.

Peter in B.C.

[Dawleyjockey]

All being well, 13th Oct 2015 at Loo's and the 12th Oct 2017 at Ypres will be the dates to pay my respects

[(nzef)]

As I was driving back from a weekend in the Somme area I started thinking about what the NEXT 100 years will bring. Will the cemeteries still be looked after in 2114.. I won't be around to see, but I fear that as the next few generations fade, so will the interest. I hope I'm wrong.

[MichaelBully]

I have wondered if  there is a that  point the Great War will stop being remembered; I belief  that it is still appropriate (obviously) to carry on for the present, and in my life time. What happens in the very long term is hard to gauge, I have thought over this when seeing graves from the Crimean War and thinking should they be maintained or given over to nature as it were. So perhaps even more reason to have some say in respect of  the 100th anniversary as this could impact on  future.

(nzef), on 18 October 2010 - 02:50 PM, said:

As I was driving back from a weekend in the Somme area I started thinking about what the NEXT 100 years will bring. Will the cemeteries still be looked after in 2114.. I won't be around to see, but I fear that as the next few generations fade, so will the interest. I hope I'm wrong.

[Mark Wilkie]

Connor, on 11 October 2010 - 04:55 AM, said:

I'll be sure to attend those places meaningful to me in 2013 or earlier and then 2019 when everyone is gone and I can see these places in peace.

Was planning on July 2016 but the more I think about it the more I think July 2013 would be a better plan. Not to take anything away from those big centenary events but visiting places that are meaningful to me would probably be best done without the crowds.

[green_acorn]

Gallipoli 24/25 April 2015


For those planning their attendance, get in early. I think you will find many of the key hotels are already booked, indeed Auistralian Tour groups are running stand-by lists (I'm way down on Boronia Travels list). There are also a couple of cruise ship companies joining in, and there will probably be more, I understand the intent is that the passengers will come ashore at Anzac Cove just before dawn to sort of reenact the landing and join the masses on shore for the ceremony.

I think there is also going to be a Turkish vz Australian surfboat race across the straits on 25 or 26th


Cheers,
Hendo

[Wainfleet]

steve morse, on 05 October 2010 - 03:51 PM, said:

Poelcapelle 2017 - probably only me there!

I hadn't really thought about it but would certainly like to be there. Our cousin George Walker, 2/9th Manchesters, 61st Divn. was killed on 9.10.17; what looks like the jumping-off trench is still there, as are the (replanted) wood and the (rebuilt) farmhouse they never reached. I also have a Guards officer's "Tommy's tunic" worn in the attack across the Broembeek that day, and would like to visit the scene. 100th anniversary seems a good time to go!

[dutchbarge]

Cam, on 06 October 2010 - 12:51 PM, said:

Everything going well I will be there at various dates in my motorhome and not paying huge prices
to greedy hotels etc!  

Cam.

Not to throw a wet blanket on your plans, but unless you have enough drivers with you to perpetually hover,  you had better reserve somewhere to park that motorhome. Cheers, Bill

[mlm]

Hopefully will be on the Somme on 27 September 2016 walking in the footsteps of my great uncle killed near Goose Alley with many others of the 1st Otago Battalion.

[Stephen Garnett]

Dear All,

Something I have considered recently is whether a copy of George Coppard's 'With a machine gun to Cambrai' could not be presented to every secondary school in the United Kingdom. It is a brilliant book that spoke to me directly as a 13/14 year old given Coppard's age as a soldier and his clear and fluent writing style.

I have given no serious thought to the practicalities of such an endeavour, which I am sure would be immense but interestingly, it would certainly link to the commemoration of Loos in 2015. It was through the book that I first heard of the Hohenzollern Redoubt and the actions of the Kitchener men who fought there.

If only picked up by a hundred students during 2014-2018 and in the years that follow, it is a book that will ensure that a hundred people and their eventual families will always remember.

Many thanks,

Steve Garnett

[museumtom]

Our Government has allocated money to celebrate the 1916 Easter Rebellion but not one single penny to remember 191, go figure.
Regards.
Tom.

[HEC]

I hope to attend the annual ceremony at Fromelles on 19th July 2016 to re-visit the grave of my distant relative, Lt. Eric Harding Chinner of 32nd Battalion AIF (Fromelles (Pheasant Wood) Military Cemetery - Plot 2 Row D Grave 8) and to thank our friends at Fromelles for looking after our family.

Could I also suggest that some thought be given to another forgotten Theatre of War - the East Africa Campaign 1914-1918?  This is well covered by enthusiasts in the Sub-Sahara section of GWF, particularly by Bushfighter (Loyal North Lancs.).   Many of the battlefields are located close to or in, well-established Wild Life Safari Parks in Southern Kenya and in Tanzania.  So if you are thinking of going "on safari" during 2014 - 2018 spare a thought for those laid to rest at CWGC cemeteries in the area, including Voi, Moshi, Dar-es-Salaam.

[Jim_Grundy]

Just something I found - a man taken prisoner on 25th September 1915 at Loos thinking about what people would be thinking a century on:

"Several of us have started albums here with contributions from as many people as we can get, and I think they will be rather interesting in 100 years or so when our great-grandchildren are laboriously learning the history of the war at school!" Second Lieutenant J.H. Alcock, 8th Lincolns.

[Stephen Garnett]

Hi Jim,

Do you have any idea of what went into those albums or if they still exist?

Many thanks,

Steve Garnett

[Jim_Grundy]

Stephen Garnett, on 09 January 2011 - 07:55 PM, said:

Do you have any idea of what went into those albums or if they still exist?

Sorry, Steve, I've no idea if they survived. Only just found that particular account so haven't done anything to follow it up, mind. Would indeed be fascinating, especially if full details of who was in the albumn were provided as he was putting it together with an eye on the future!

[trenchwalker]

MONS 2014 - got to be done again

[George Armstrong Custer]

trenchwalker, on 08 November 2011 - 09:19 AM, said:

MONS 2014 - got to be done again

You think the Eurozone crisis will come to that? Blimey!

George

[rotorjack]

In 2014 I hope I will be fit enough to walk in the footsteps of the Old Contemptables and in particular an uncle with the 1 Lincolnshire.
In 2015 I will stand at his grave with my grandsons.
2016 I will visit his brothers exploits with the Buffs. That's the plan.