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Today I'm remembering my maternal grandfather, Private William Victor Collins 6th Dragoon Guards, who died on the night of 21/22 June 1917. His grave is #1, at the head of Row B. The British Military Cemetery Northern Extension is the second such military cemetery in the little Somme village of Templeux-le-Guérard, with just 136 personnel buried in it. My grandfather and his pal, Pte P McDonald, buried next to him, were killed by a night-time artillery barrage.
In total, eleven members of my family served in WW1, from the very beginning in August 1914, right up to the end, and beyond. Only one died, but all were wounded, and all but one gassed.
Today here in UK, we have had a Remembrance Day parade attended, for the first time ever, by the President of the Federal Republic of Germany - a strange sight indeed, as you may imagine.
As well as the usual Royal Family, all of whom have served in the armed forces, some in actual combat, like Andrew and Harry [Philip was not outside, but was watching], there were more than ten thousand veterans, followed up, for the first time, by ten thousand members of the public for whom war has a personal resonance.
David Dimbleby pointed out that if, instead, the column of marchers today had consisted of a one-for-one representation of the British and Commonwealth dead of WW1, the column of marchers past the Cenotaph would have begun in Newcastle, some 290 miles to the North of the Cenotaph.
A Day of Remembrance indeed.
In total, eleven members of my family served in WW1, from the very beginning in August 1914, right up to the end, and beyond. Only one died, but all were wounded, and all but one gassed.
Today here in UK, we have had a Remembrance Day parade attended, for the first time ever, by the President of the Federal Republic of Germany - a strange sight indeed, as you may imagine.
As well as the usual Royal Family, all of whom have served in the armed forces, some in actual combat, like Andrew and Harry [Philip was not outside, but was watching], there were more than ten thousand veterans, followed up, for the first time, by ten thousand members of the public for whom war has a personal resonance.
David Dimbleby pointed out that if, instead, the column of marchers today had consisted of a one-for-one representation of the British and Commonwealth dead of WW1, the column of marchers past the Cenotaph would have begun in Newcastle, some 290 miles to the North of the Cenotaph.
A Day of Remembrance indeed.
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