Armistice 1918 - 2018 100 years

At 1100 on 11th November 2018 it will be 100 years since the end of the First World War and commemoration services will be held in the UK and many other countries throughout the world.

This particular story is heart rending and if it hadn't been for the intervention of Queen Mary, one family would have lost all six sons in France and Belgium.

Five sons killed. Then a town’s pleas to save the last were heard

Ghosts of the Great War: Incredible images reveal how reminders of WWI remain etched on the British countryside 100 years after the guns fell silent

In Flanders fields the poppies blow

Between the crosses, row on row,

That mark our place; and in the sky

The larks, still bravely singing, fly

Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago

We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,

Loved and were loved, and now we lie

In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:

To you from failing hands we throw

The torch; be yours to hold it high.

If ye break faith with us who die

We shall not sleep, though poppies grow

In Flanders fields.

During the early days of the Second Battle of Ypres a young Canadian artillery officer, Lieutenant Alexis Helmer, was killed on 2 May, 1915 in the gun positions near Ypres. An exploding German artillery shell landed near him. He was serving in the same Canadian artillery unit as a friend of his, the Canadian military doctor and artillery commander Major John McCrae.

As the brigade doctor, John McCrae was asked to conduct the burial service for Alexis because the chaplain had been called away somewhere else on duty that evening. It is believed that later that evening, after the burial, John began the draft for his now famous poem “In Flanders Fields”.

Inspiration for the poem “In Flanders Fields” by John McCrae