The Somme
I started writing this on Wednesday. The 16th July 2014.
The 98th Anniversary of William Devall, last of Vauxhall in London and the 7th Battalion Shropshire Light Infantry, succumbing to wounds received in the Battle of the Somme.
Tomorrow, Döra and I will go across to France again. Thanks to people like William and the next generation that fought in the Second World War we are able to travel with few restrictions. Something else we owe to the hundreds of thousands of (mostly) young men that went out and never returned to their families and their loved ones.
On Sunday, four days late, I will call into the cemetery and plant a Poppy Cross to show that the Devall family remembers his sacrifice.
Laurence Binyon's Poem "For the Fallen"
"They went with songs to the battle, they were young.
Straight of limb, true of eye, steady and aglow.
They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted,
They fell with their faces to the foe.
They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning,
We will remember them.
They mingle not with their laughing comrades again;
They sit no more at familiar tables of home;
They have no lot in our labour of the day-time;
They sleep beyond England's foam"
Straight of limb, true of eye, steady and aglow.
They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted,
They fell with their faces to the foe.
They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning,
We will remember them.
They mingle not with their laughing comrades again;
They sit no more at familiar tables of home;
They have no lot in our labour of the day-time;
They sleep beyond England's foam"
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Bazentin_Ridge
Comments
Enjoy the ride.