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T he T rusty S ervant
Our thanks go to our expert guides James
and Michael for all the hard work that
went into organising such a moving and
informative tour, for their enthusiasm
and unstinting patience answering our
endless questions. My final image is of an
octogenarian Old Wykehamist weaving
his way home through London Friday
evening rush hour crowds and the last
words from War Cloister ‘…gentle in
all things, valiant in action, steadfast in
adversity.’
Australian Memorial at Le Hamel
where we heard about the remarkable
career of Royal Engineer Lt Col Henry
Morshead, who survived the war and was
instrumental in getting his division across
the canal and into the Hindenburg Line,
and also listened to a talk by another
Royal Engineer Lt Col Richard Pawson
about blowing up bridges.
It is extraordinary that one school should
have produced such a diverse cast of
characters, officer and private, British
and Australian, Infantry and Engineer,
old and young, some professional soldiers
and some with very different plans. But
then, looking around on the coach,
perhaps we are still pretty varied today.
Then a brief ceremony at Bellicourt
British Cemetery where Hugh Barnard
and his sons laid a wreath to Lt Col the
Reverend Bernard Vann VC, with whom
his relation served. Finally we heard
about Lt General Sir Walter Braithwaite
who, although his OW son Valentine
died on the first day of the Somme and
left him devastated by grief, continued to
lead his Corps in the final breakthrough
that hastened the end of the war.
David Fellowes at Richard Hunter’s grave
We all had a splendid final dinner
together in Péronne, followed by a brief
visit to the war museum again the next
morning and the coach to Lille and the
train. On the way we stopped at the
communal cemetery at Cambrai where
British soldiers and airmen of both
World Wars, French soldiers, including
a large Russian contingent sent to the
Western Front, and many German graves
lie beside French civilian headstones, a
remarkable place of atonement.
US Memorial at Bellicourt
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