SKI-er or Sk-ater. We know how to enjoy ourselves

margaretclare

donny-gal wrote: »

Yes, they are very moving.
Just look what Albert looked like then
http://www.ww1battlefields.co.uk/somme/albert.html
We have been there several times as my Grandad won a DCM near there, just down from the Thiepval Memorial.
DG

There's a tower there dedicated to the Ulster Division. It's an exact copy of a tower in Northern Ireland.

That basilica in Albert was completely destroyed and faithfully reconstructed exactly as it was previously. Old ladies were in there cleaning it! We just sat and said a prayer.

John_Pierpoint

This has to be one of the most inspiring WW1places to visit and stay if you want to:

http://www.greatwar.co.uk/ypres-salient/museum-talbot-house.htm

Getting underneath his hump of chalk is interesting too (though there are things to do on the surface too)::

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-534236/Inside-amazing-cave-city-housed-25-000-Allied-troops-German-noses-WWI.html

At his place you get the impression that it is down hill all the way to Berlin especially if it is misty and drizzling.
http://www.ww1battlefields.co.uk/others/vimy.html

pollypenny

We visited Toc H two years ago. My uncle was a founder member of The Western Front Association,and born in Belgium, so went over regularly.

We took his widow, my aunt, as she presented his papers to the wonderful In Flanders Fields Museum.

mumps

margaretclare wrote: »

There's a tower there dedicated to the Ulster Division. It's an exact copy of a tower in Northern Ireland.

That basilica in Albert was completely destroyed and faithfully reconstructed exactly as it was previously. Old ladies were in there cleaning it! We just sat and said a prayer.

The original tower is on the Clandeboye Estate near Bangor. My grandmother spent some of her childhood on the estate where my great grandmother worked. Bangor is a nice town to visit close to Belfast with a good train service. Both my grandfathers fought in WW1 but I don't know which divisions they were in but at least one would have been likely to be in the Ulster Division. They were only teenagers when they were in France, one was underage and lied to join up. I thought about them when I went to France and saw the graves. They could easily have died as so many young men did.

margaretclare

It seems to have been not at all uncommon for lads to lie about their age to 'join up' when all their mates were doing so. I suppose if you were a tall, well-grown, healthy-looking lad you could get away with it and the recruiting sergeants didn't ask too many questions. It's known that one of the 'Leeds Pals' was killed on the first day of the Somme, on his 16th birthday. The 'Pals' battalions are something that interests me because that was a phenomenon that only lasted for a short time, mainly those inexperienced volunteers, who all joined together, trained together, fought together and died together, were the ones who were wiped out on that dreadful first day. After that, anyone who joined seems to have been put in anywhere there happened to be a place to fill. My late husband's uncle, for example, a Dartford lad, fought and died with the North Staffordshires, not with his home regiment, the West Kents.

pollypenny

An interesting campaign poster in the Imperial War Museum gives a minimum height - 5'3"!

Says much about the nutrition available to most of the population at the time.

Errata

pollypenny wrote: »

An interesting campaign poster in the Imperial War Museum gives a minimum height - 5'3"!

Says much about the nutrition available to most of the population at the time.

In fact the government of the time was horrified when it discovered how short and weedy the vast majority of men were.

mumps

pollypenny wrote: »

An interesting campaign poster in the Imperial War Museum gives a minimum height - 5'3"!

Says much about the nutrition available to most of the population at the time.

My grandfather was 6', although he was probably shorter than that when he joined up at 14. Perhaps country lads in Ulster were better fed than some?

mumps

margaretclare wrote: »

It seems to have been not at all uncommon for lads to lie about their age to 'join up' when all their mates were doing so. I suppose if you were a tall, well-grown, healthy-looking lad you could get away with it and the recruiting sergeants didn't ask too many questions. It's known that one of the 'Leeds Pals' was killed on the first day of the Somme, on his 16th birthday. The 'Pals' battalions are something that interests me because that was a phenomenon that only lasted for a short time, mainly those inexperienced volunteers, who all joined together, trained together, fought together and died together, were the ones who were wiped out on that dreadful first day. After that, anyone who joined seems to have been put in anywhere there happened to be a place to fill. My late husband's uncle, for example, a Dartford lad, fought and died with the North Staffordshires, not with his home regiment, the West Kents.

I'm not sure how old they were supposed to be to join up, he was 14 and joined up more than once! His father went and got him back the first time but when he ran off and did it again he washed his hands of him. My sister probably knows his regiment as she is the family history expert. I must try to remember to ask her.

John_Pierpoint

The army was not too impressed by the level of education achieved since 1870.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elementary_Education_Act_1870
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Education_in_Germany#History

From my limited experience the British Army is still able to tale failures from the school system and them make something of them.