Addickted, I MissthePeanutman, A Chelsea Fan and Yours Truly were in northern France over the weekend visiting some of the many, many CWGC memorials in the area, at only one of which did we interrupt an elderly French couple doing the do in the back seat of a car.
As well as some of the big sites (Thiepval, the memorial to the 72,000 missing from the Somme and Compiegne, the site of the German Surrender in 1918 and the French surrender in 1940) we went to some smaller and very beautiful cemeteries.
Tales of dogems at 1.00am, dodgy moulles, late knight drinking, bellows, being woken up at 8.00am to move the car for a Sunday market and more may get exaggerated in the telling.
A cracking weekend, thanks lads.
The CAFC content.
We paid our respects at the grave of Fred Chick, one of 4 CAFC members who died in WWI but the only one whose name we know.
We also found the grave of Billie Nevill the young officer who provided four footballs, one for each company, to kick in front of them as they walked towards the German Front line on the first day of the Battle of the Somme 1st July 1916. Nevill, along with 60,000 others, was a casualty that day.
Photos to follow
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Did you see or find any of the iron harvest?
Stayed in a very small village called Longpont about 60km east of Paris. They had a Saturday night fair going on which was great to join in. Friends place and very nice.
A complete shell had been left on the wall of one of the cemetaries. Decided against bringing it home as they can, and do, still explode.
Also saw French kids selling shell caps at Theipval at 5 Euros a go.
Or shoes!
Well, how do you do, Private William McBride,
Do you mind if I sit down here by your graveside?
And rest for awhile in the warm summer sun,
I've been walking all day, and I'm nearly done.
And I see by your gravestone you were only 19
When you joined the glorious fallen in 1916,
Well, I hope you died quick and I hope you died clean
Or, Willie McBride, was it slow and obscene?
Did they Beat the drum slowly, did the play the pipes lowly?
Did the rifles fir o'er you as they lowered you down?
Did the bugles sound The Last Post in chorus?
Did the pipes play the Flowers of the Forest?
And did you leave a wife or a sweetheart behind
In some loyal heart is your memory enshrined?
And, though you died back in 1916,
To that loyal heart are you forever 19?
Or are you a stranger without even a name,
Forever enshrined behind some glass pane,
In an old photograph, torn and tattered and stained,
And fading to yellow in a brown leather frame?
The sun's shining down on these green fields of France;
The warm wind blows gently, and the red poppies dance.
The trenches have vanished long under the plow;
No gas and no barbed wire, no guns firing now.
But here in this graveyard that's still No Man's Land
The countless white crosses in mute witness stand
To man's blind indifference to his fellow man.
And a whole generation who were butchered and damned.
And I can't help but wonder, no Willie McBride,
Do all those who lie here know why they died?
Did you really believe them when they told you "The Cause?"
Did you really believe that this war would end wars?
Well the suffering, the sorrow, the glory, the shame
The killing, the dying, it was all done in vain,
For Willie McBride, it all happened again,
And again, and again, and again, and again.
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GULP!
Amazing what you can find whilst walking alongside the fields in Northern France.....I had a large collection of shells, detonator caps and various odd bits of shrapnel.......I once found a massive shell which must have stood nearly three feet in height in a field near Hawthorn Ridge.....I have the photos somewhere. My Grandads brother is commemorated at Thiepval. I once sat at the ruins of a German machine gun block, next to the Ulster tower.....I was stting there trying to get a feel for what it must have been like, walking towards your death......there was a group in the grounds of the tower and someone was reciting poetry....it was really surreal and somewhat eerie.....
Was over at The Thiepval Memorial to the Missing of the Somme two weeks ago.....
My brother in law has a base over there as he works for the western front, and does research for the CWGC .
I was tracing my grandfathers brother who died over there private Smart from Deptford......
If there are any Charlton connections I am sure he will check them out he has access to the war records/graves etc. Players/ officials/ fans
If you have any names/dates let me know I am sure he would be happy to help out, he owes me a favour or two...... just give me a whisper.....
Thanks Ken,
All we know is that the Club minutes from 1919 when CAFC was reformed post war mention four members who paid the "ultimate price" or similar. But no names are mentioned. It could be any of the pre-war players or coaches etc and at this distance almost impossible to find. If we knew the names we could have a good stab at finding them as the CWGC records are pretty good.
Clive Harris, who is a Charlton fan and runs tours of the Western Front, has done some research and Fred Chick is the only one he's been able to say with any certainty was one of the four.
Many of the Charltons fans had already swelled the ranks of the 20th Londons (Woolwich and Blackheath) by the time the club decided to "wind up" for the duration in March 1915. Records show 30 Club members, players and officials joined the forces. 4 lost their lives and seven more were wounded.
One such man was Fred Chick player and trainer at what is now the Valley signed on the 13th Middlesex, an over spill of the 17th (footballers) Bn. He is listed as Private 245365. He was killed in action 31/8/16 and is buried at Caterpillar Valley Cem, at Longueval on the Somme
I've got a lovely picture of Fred Chicks grave (if admin can assist with the download).
His headstone actually says "West Kent (Queens Own) Yeomanry"- we were there yesterday!
Whilst you were there, had you travelled to Ieper (Ypres) you may have found the grave of my Grandfather. I did.
my great grandad got a Military cross for his bravery there Daggs
My grandfather got a DCM (posthumous) He was 26 yrs old!
proud as punch done some good research through some helpfull tips from folks on here
Mine fought at Jutland in 1916 while my dad was in the Royal Engineers Bomb Disposal (the danger UXB people) in WWII
NLA. Did your G Grandad suvive the war?
i placed his medal in a display in the Enfield small arms museum, the post office stamp on the back of the medal box was Enfield post office 5 mins from where i currently live. It takes time to research and is imensly satisfing NLJR will in herit the medals he is already so proud of them and has taken them to school to show off at show and tell.
They shall not be forgotten in this House hold i can assure you of that
Wow my opinion has changed. I am not aware of any of my grandfolks war histories other than my two Nan's in WW2. One worked on the Conscription Board which sat in what became the Dole Office in Spray Street in Woolwich. Henry, I think your brother worked there in the 80's? And the other worked in the Arsenal making the bits and pieces you guys still discover.
Also a reminder to dig out my Men They Couldn't Hang album;-)
With one of my threads? How could you think that? : - )
Yes Danny did work there then? Do you know him then?
My nan also worked in the Arsenal in WWI. She was one of the Canaries, so called because the cordite in the shells made their skins turn yellow.
My dad was in Burma and i want to visit there but at the moment not very safe.
A few years ago a group of friends and i was on holiday in Prague and decided to go to Poland and visit Auschwitz- Birkenau , that was the most terrible thing you can imagine, I would recommend the authority's instead of sending these ASBO's on holiday to sunny places to send them there instead , you never know it just may rub some respect off on to them...
Battlefields from the air, new footage