Today is Armistice Day, which ended the hostilities of the Great War 106 years ago.

I posted some photos of Duhallow War Cemetery yesterday but today I’m concentrating on the Great War dead. Duhallow contains graves of men from several of the armies involved in that conflict.

The next two photos feature pillars which note the men commemorated there were originally buried in other cemeteries which were destroyed in later battles.

Crescent of Headstones; original burials in Fusilier Wood:-

Line of Headstones; transferred from Malakoff Farm Cemetery:-

I presumed these markers denoted the graves of brothers Privates W & A Barr, Seaforth Highlanders, 9/1/1918:-

I found two French graves.

Jules Viard and Jean Carret, both mort pour la France, 24/10/1918:-

And a Belgian grave, of Antoine Vandegam, died 19/10/1918. The photo also shows the graves of Sapper, J Rooney, RE, October, 1918 aged 25 and Serjeant P Hackett, Leinster Regiment, 18/10/1918:-

Star of David headstone for Private S Margolis, Labour Corps, 9/1/1918, aged 24, flanked by Private P Montague, Seaforth Highlanders, 9/1/1918 and Private W Middleton, Seaforth Highlanders, 9/1/1918:-

Two Germans; Curt Hoyer, Grenadier, 16/10/1918 and Johann Hobelsberger, Private, date of death obscured:-

The front row below is for other German war dead:-

For Remembrance Day.

Duhallow is one of the many War Cemeteries you come upon in and around Ypres (Ieper) in Belgium. It lies beside the Diksmuidseweg on the  road designated N369 leading more or less north out of Ypres. In it there lie the remains of 1544 Commonwealth casualties plus 57 graves of other nationalities.

Cemetery from road:-

View from gates:-

Graves:-

One of the graves is of a Second World War soldier, Private D Morrell, Durham Light Infantry, who died on 29/5/1940, aged 21:-

White House Cemetery lies beside the N313 road just north-east of Ieper (Ypres,) Belgium.

It is a Commonwealth War Graves Commission Cemetery and contains mostly graves of soldiers killed from 1915-1918, but there are 9 burials from the Second World War including a Belgian casualty.

Cemetery from road:-

Entrance Gate:-

Panoramic stitch:-

Stone memorial to Great War soldiers buried elsewhere:-

There were too many graves from the Great War (1163) to itemise them individually. The graves of the nine World War 2 dead are shown below.

Three WW2 Graves. Cpt V C Marr, MC, The Queen’s Own Royal West Kent Regiment, 23/5/1940, aged 41. Cpl F S Payne, The Queen’s Royal Regiment, 23/5/1940. Cpl F C Schilling, The Buffs, 23/5/1940, aged 32:-

Thrre more graves from 1940. Private F T Birchall, Royal Sussex Regiment, 23/5/1940, aged 20. Private G A Edwards, Royal Sussex Regiment, 23/5/1940, aged 20. Lt Col F T Green, Northamptonshire Regiment, 23/5/1940, aged 41:-

Two 1940 graves. Gunner D Strachan, Royal Artillery, 22/5/1940, aged 36. Fusilier W Penrose, Lancashire Fusiliers, 22/5/1940:-

Louis Henri Vanninsel, 13/9/1898 – 24/5/1940. Stierf Voor Belgie:-

Thee was a fenced off crater nearby signalling the continuing legacy of the Great War,

The museum is situated on the Canadalaan off the Menin Road, near Ypres (Ieper,) Belgium. I have mentioned Canadalaan before, here and here.

The board describes the museum as a Museum Tranchées (Trenches Museum.)

Two field guns flank the museum’s frontage:-

The museum building contains many relics of the Great War but its main interest is a set of relatively well-preserved trenches to the rear of the building where the trees of Sanctuary Wood have returned.

These supports for barbed wire lean against the back of the building:-

View of Trenches:-

Derelict aero engines and shell craters:-

More craters:-

Trench line:-

More trenches:-

A dugout:-

Trench mortar and trenches:-

Tunnel entrance:-

Part of tunnel:-

Tunnel exit:-

Kirriemuir’s War Memorial is right at the top end of Kirriemuir Cemetery. It takes the form of a kilted Scottish soldier with raised rifle surmounting a square stone, elaborately capped block with columns at its corners containing WW1 names resting on a larger plinth with inscriptions all set on a stepped base.

The base is inscribed with the word “France.” The dedication reads, “This monument is raised to perpetuate the memory of the youth and manhood of the parish of Kirriemuir who fell in the service of their king and country in the Great War. It stands a tribute of homage to the fallen and an abiding inspiration to posterity. ‘Their name liveth for evermore.'” The panel holds names for the Great War:-

Each side of the memorial contains Great War names and that of an area of conflict, Mesopotamia, Gallipoli and Belgium:-

In front of the older memorial is a further granite plinth commemorating the dead of World War 2 with the dedication, “To perpetuate the memory of those who gave their lives in the World War 1939 – 1945” and names from the Black Watch, the Royal Navy, the RAF and the Hong Kong Volunteer Defence Force:-

On one side of the plinth are commemorated soldiers of the Gordon Highlanders, King’s Own Scottish Borderers, Royal Scots and Royal Engineers:-

On the other the Royal Army Corps, Royal Army Medical Corps, Royal Army Ordnance Corps, Scots Guards, Seaforths and Royal Corps of Signals:-

Nearby is a War memorial bench:-

Sanctuary Wood Cemetery is one of the many Imperial (later Commonwealth) War Graves Commission cemeteries that lie in the countryside around Ypres (Ieper) in Belgium.

It lies near T’Hooghe (Hooge) off the Canadalaan (Canada Lane) itself coming off the Meenseweg (the Menin Road of dreadful memory.) Buried or commemorated in the cemetery are 1,989 Commonwealth servicemen of the First World War of whom 1,348 are unidentified. For information about the cemetery see here.

I note from the link that this cemetery is the resting place (in Plot IV. D. 14) of Captain Robert Frederick Balfour, 1st Battalion Scots Guards who died on 28th October 1914, aged 31. He was the son of Edward Balfour, of “Balbirnie,” Markinch, Fife. I live a couple of hundred yards or so from the Balfours’ former home, Balbirnie House.

Sanctuary Wood Cemetery entrance:-

Stone of Remembrance and Cross of Sacrifice from entrance:-

Information board:-

Graves:-

Graves from south:-

I found one German War grave in the cemetery, Flieg Hauptmann Hans Roser, F Fliegerabt 3, 25/7/1915:-

Just outside Sanctuary Wood Cemetery there is a private memorial in memory of Keith Rae, 2nd Lieutenant, 8th Battalion the Rifle Brigade, “who died on this spot, 30/7/1915, in his 26th year.” “Also in memory of his brother officers and men who fell on the same morning and afternoon.”

No individual memorials were/are allowed inside Imperial/Commonwealth War Graves Commission cemeteries. Whatever their differences in life (not least in military rank) in death it was decided that all should be treated equally, with identical headstones. Apart from name rank, number and their regimental insignia (and a special marking in the shape of that award if the deceased had won a Victoria Cross) only an inscription chosen by the deceased’s family and situated to the bottom of the headstone distinguishes one from another.

I presume this memorial was allowed by the Belgian authorities since it lies beyond Sanctuary Wood Cemetery’s boundaries:-

Gosh, it comes round again.

The draw for the European qualification round for the 2022 World Cup (to be held in Qatar) was made today.

Scotland’s fate could have been worse I suppose – we managed to avoid holders France, world ranked no 1 Belgium and also Spain, England, Germany, Italy and Portugal, nemeses in previous qualification campaigns, but Denmark, Austria and Israel (yet again drawn in a group with Scotland) are no mugs; and I always get the fear over games against countries like the Faroe Islands and Moldova.

Our last two games were 1-0 defeats too let’s not forget, but I’ll give the team a pass on those as they were hungover (in the nicest sense I hasten to add) from managing to reach the Euro finals.

The one name suffices.

Like most superstars he is immediately identifiable.

Sadly one of the best two footballers ever to play the game today left the global pitch. Shockingly young it has to be said.

I suppose in that, his personal demons may have had something to do with it. But mercifully in the light of other recent deaths of former footballers it wasn’t dementia that took him.

His feats on the international stage are enough to put him on a pedestal, dragging Argentina to a World Cup win in 1986 almost (but not quite) on his own and to another final four years later, but it was his elevation of Napoli to the status of winners of Lo Scudetto in 1987 that is perhaps his greatest achievement. And then he did it with them again three years later. They haven’t touched those heights since.

In that 1986 World Cup there was the (in)famous Hand of God goal in the quarter-final against England – soon to be followed by the even more famous slalom through the whole England defence, one by one putting them on their backsides before planting the ball in the net. Even the English TV commentator Barry Davies was moved to remark, “You have to say that’s magnificent.”

But his performance in the semi-final against Belgium was better, a level of sustained excellence rarely seen before or since, perhaps even unequalled. I found this distillation of it (with a lot of repeat angles) on You Tube.

Diego Armando Maradona Franco: 30/10/1960 – 25/11/2020. So it goes.

For more general views of Overleigh Cemetery, see here.

It’s unusual in the UK for two soldiers to be commemorated on the one headstone. (It is much more common in the battlefield War Cemeteries in Belgium and France.)

There were two such paired burials in Overleigh though.

Gunner W Jones, Royal Garrison Artillery, 5/11/1918, aged 35 and Driver A Wildman, Royal Field Artillery, 6/11/1918:-

Private R Jones, Cheshire Regiment, 19/10/1915, aged 21, and Private C H McLaren, Cheshire Regiment, 12/10/1915, aged 43:-

Private A Waterfall, West Yorkshire Regiment, 26/7/1916, and Private E T Morris, Cheshire Regiment, 22/5/1916:-

Private J Williams, Royal Welch Fusiliers, 15/6/1921, aged 29, and Private F Dale, Manchester Regiment, 16/1/1921.

Bombardier C Pearce, Royal Field Artillery, 13/7/1920, aged 32, and, in background, F Williams, The King’s Liverpool Regiment, 2/6/1920, aged 20:-

Originally called Cheddar Villa after the name given by the army to the farm on the site this lies 5 kilometres northwest of Ypres on the N313 road leading to Bruges. It’s now called Seaforth Cemetery at the request of the Seaforth Highlanders as more than 100 of the 148 burials were from the regiment’s 2nd Battalion.

Wall dedicated to the men of the 2nd Battalion Seaforth Highlanders, 99 of whom are buried in the cemetery plus 23 others who also died in the attack on St Julien on 25/4/1915 and 25/4/1915.

Cemetery interior:-

More headstones:-

Most of the headstones do not mark individual graves. “The 75 non-commissioned officers and men buried in this grave are commemorated by headstones erected against the left hand wall of this cemetery.”

“The18 non-commissioned officers and men buried in this grave are commemorated by headstones erected against the right hand wall of this cemetery.”