To have tears in my eyes at this?

[parmalilac]

Just seen in the news photos of the Somme soldiers at railway stations etc today, silently handing out cards with names of the fallen. What a wonderful way to to remind us of that terrible tragedy, and well done to whoever organised it.

The country of one's old age is always unrecognisable from one's youth.

Those born in 1895 who survived the Somme were 70-year-olds in 1965. And living in a country where motor vehicles had completely replaced the horse, with not only radio broadcasts but TV, and music was The Beatles being pursued by screaming mobs of (newly invented) "teenagers" after flying the Atlantic on commercial aeroplanes. And women were increasingly gaining ground in the workplace while wearing skirts like pelmets.

It's always unrecognisable. And always disturbing because it's change.

The changes can be good ones. But they're still disturbing. That's just how it is.

from that of one's youth

Last Friday I was a bit shocked to drive through my town and see Union Jack and English flags flying from a lot of the shop windows. I thought it was some kind of Leave campaign celebration, then I realised the Union Jack flags had Somme 1916 written across them.
Last year there was also a thing where you could check if someone who had previously lived in your house had fought in WW1. If so, you could get a card to put in your window which gave the name and age of the soldier, and whether they came back from the war. It was very poignant, it's only a small town and there were so many losses.

Pals battalions had a major impact on communities, it was the death of some places. Women and children forgotten in their droves as 90% of men from some areas never came home

I was reading a 1916 newspaper clipping recently, which lamented the passing of an romantic older way of life driven out by the soulless efficiency of... steam engines.

Yy, to the tragedy of Pals Battalions.

As we sit here typing, 100years ago roll calls were being done in trenches, layer it wpuld transpire that on this day over 57,470 casualties happened 19,240 of them deaths of men.

So very sad. We will remember them.

Later it would that should read. Sorry

Cydonia, I'd like to know if anyone who lived in my house (or road) served in WWI.

Was it just your town, or could you point me to a site to find that out?

Surely you'd have to get an Ancestry membership (or FindMyPast) then address search for your house. See who is there in 1911 Census. There's no guarantee they were still there 5 years later, but...

Then look up those names on the Medal Roll on Ancestry.

Don't forget it was largely the older generation that voted out of Europe, you all conveniently forget.

What a utterly crass and ignorant thing to say.

The poems are lovely, very moving, and please note that if you want to talk about Brexit there are many other threads for that very purpose - but not this one.

I was at the event a Thiepval, and many of us did not have dry eyes. It was very moving.

It was a lovely way of showing the right kind of patriotism: sorrow and gratitude to those poor, poor men, and a hope that our country and all those involved, France, Germany, etc, can continue to live together in peace. Very gentle and thought-provoking,

Yes, I can certainly have a crack the slow way via Ancestry (will take a bit of paging through the 1911 and crossing fingers).

Should have done my address before now, but I've been completely overwhelmed by researching family who served. I thought I might find a handful, but it's something like 50 just on one side of the family (13 killed). That's getting into 3rd cousins, but it still seems a ridiculous number.

I've been helping friends with the same, and contributing to the online material about the physical war memorials, and the online databases.

I know too much about too many of those who served, to feel able to watch the memorial ceremonies. They just destroy me.

But I'm proud to say I managed to identify a soldier killed on 23 July 1916 near High Wood during the Battle of the Somme. He was just a rank, regt, number and misspelled name on the CWGC database, with no personal details at all. Coming from the other direction, with newspaper notices inserted by his family, I tied their lost son and brother down to one man on the Thiepval memorial, and his biography is now in the Thiepval Database. So JM, here's to you. And here's to your nephews who had to do it all over a-bloody-gain in 1939, and your niece who joined them nursing at the front.

Was really cool, yanbu. I visit the graves of the soldiers sometimes

I'm not sure Surely, I know I didn't see it in any other local towns but I don't know how it all came about. Our house is too new for me to check so I didn't find out, though I might look into it now. Lots more flags out today too.

Not sure if the link will work, I thought this was very sad, 20,000 figures draped in shrouds to represent the fallen.

m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=10153780022412613&id=723047612&ref=bookmarks

Somehow my DH's grandfather survived it - when he came home, his wife wouldn't let him talk about it as she "found it too upsetting", so he held it inside, dying of stomach cancer in his 50s stomach cancer is caused by increased acid, increased acid can be caused by stress, stress can be caused by bottling things up DH loved him - he sounded a really lovely man

OP. So touching, those soldiers, thank you for the thread.
Also thanks to everyone who contributed, a very worthwhile and sobering thread.

becausewearehere.co.uk/