Remembering ...

Our visit to the museum complete, we left Albert and headed into the surrounding countryside to visit some of the war graves and battlefield sites.

Of particular interest to us was the Thiepval memorial to the missing of the Somme.


This imposing piece of architecture bears the names of more than 72,000 officers and men of the United Kingdom and South African forces who died in the Somme area before 20 March 1918, and have no known grave.

72,000 sounds a lot, and believe us, as you stand under the roof of the memorial, close enough to read the names, you find there are so, so many, that the tragic loss of life really hits home anew. And then when you think about all the thousands of Commonwealth war graves, for known soldiers, which are in addition to all these thousands of names, the reality becomes so horrifying that you begin to wonder if you will ever smile again.

Anyway, our interest in Thiepval was that we were looking for one particular name, that of a young man from a neighbouring village to us. Amongst all those thousands of names, we found it, one F W Eke, from the small Norfolk village of Hindolveston.


Earlier today, since today is Remembrance Sunday, we remembered Mr Eke again, this time at the Hindolveston war memorial. As we gathered for the act of remembrance and two minutes silence, we again saw his name carved into a memorial, this time one much closer to the home he was never to see again.


And as we remembered the fallen this morning, we learnt one very interesting fact about Mr Eke. The house where he lived in Hindolveston, was the very house where some very good friends of ours now live. We hadn't known this previously, as the house is no longer called by the name mentioned in the war graves registers.


So today, Remembrance Sunday was particularly poignant for us as we gave thanks for the heroic acts of so many young men and one young man in particular.

Lots of love, all at Bears Unlimited xxx