BATTLEFIELDS TRIP: Day Three

Awoke to a stunning morning and excellent breakfast at the Cambrai Ibis. First port of call was the local LeClerc, although it may have been an Intermarche.  K. had to make various purchases, mostly of an alcoholic nature.  Having taken full advantage of our membership of the single market, we headed out of town for the Queant Road cemetery, a couple of miles to the west of the village of Buissy.

Sometime in the late 80s or early 90s Mum and I had tried to find the grave of her and K's uncle Gordon, who'd been killed towards the end of the First World War.  We had walked around several cemeteries in the vicinity of St Quentin.. Why we hadn't approached the War Graves Commission, I don't know. Anyway, it is a good deal easier to find this information now - all on the internet.  Even the precise location of the gravestone.

So we found it and looked at it and were silent. What else is to be done?

51109 RIFLEMAN
G.E. NUNNS
6th BN KING'S LIVERPOOL RGT
1st SEPTEMBER 1918 AGE 20
+
MY GOD AND KING
TO THEE I BOW MY KNEE

Huge sky. Flat France.  Impossible to imagine what there was to fight over.  Lavender lined the low front wall.  Bees and butterflies.  Tremendous life.

We drove home.

There is a wonderful essay by John Keegan, 'Rosemary for Remembrance'.  You can read it here.