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| Foreign Military Graves |
On Remembrance Sunday I visited the war graves at Tonbridge Cemetery. The grass had been freshly mown, and a single poppy tribute had been placed at the foot of each memorial where British, German and Italian soldiers lay in rest side by side. Each inscribed stone stood in silent and peaceful dignity in the sunshine.
I first visited this quiet place with my German mother who made sure someone remembered these fallen soldiers each year. She affectionally called them the 'Lonely Boys' as she was convinced nobody else would visit these young men who had been laid to rest so far from their home and families.
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| Heinrich Bischoff - German Grenadier- aged 27 years |
Equally poignant is the row of twelve memorials to local men who are buried in graves on foreign soil. Amongst them an inscription to 'Husband and Father', Alfred Edward Barnes of the Royal Artillery who died a POW, aged 34, buried in Kanchanaburi, Siam, and 'Dear Son', Peter Terry, pilot in the RAF interred at Bari, Italy.
Other burial places are Cassino Military Cemetery and Assisi Italy, Dreiborn and Dusseldorf in Germany, four service men lost at sea and two in France including Gerald Alfred Bathurst, a Tank Wireless Operator who was killed in action in Normandy, aged 22.
Every name represents a family torn apart, fatherless children, a mother's son, a wife's husband, or lover never to return home.
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| English Military Memorials for Servicemen buried abroad |
My uncle is buried there. Aged 19. My father's only brother. So sad.
ReplyDeleteWe visit the graves.