The tale of CWGC Gardeners

[Soren]

Hello,

I am formulating an idea on my head, the idea I have is for a small full colour illustrated booklet detailing the story of the soldiers who stayed on after WW1 and their subsequent offspring who continued the work.

I thought perhaps that some forum members may know of some events or stories relating to these men?

My ideas for images so far:

1919

1) Depicting the gardeners wearing service dress, starting to form the cemeteries still with the rudimentary crosses

2) A graves registration unit

1920's

1) The opening of the school attached to the English church Ieper for the gardeners children.

1930's

1) The gardeners used to play cricket, so this will be a drawing

1940's

1) The 3 George's, This depicts George Hawkes & George Sutherland cycling down to Boulogne during the invasion being strafed by Stukas as they made their escape to serve King George.

This is based on a tale passed onto me by my good friend Patrick Hawkes whose Father and Grandfather (ww1 Vet) were gardeners.

Any help/info / pointers appreciated!

Soren

[Eirian]

Just wondered if you'd thought about a 'then and now' section? Might work if you can get an early picture of a particular cemetery and compare it with the same view taken nowadays, to illustrate how the gardens have developed and matured.

I have seen an early picture of Artillery Wood cemetery, which looks quite bleak and stark, compared with how it seems to look today.

Eirian