Collingwood-Thompson Memorial

[bobpike]

I have been to La Ferte three times & been unable to locate this memorial despite having Barry Thorp's WFA book & map. What am I doing wrong! Is the map inaccurate? Has the Memorial been moved? Help, please giving directions with the La Ferte Memorial & the river behind me!!

Lt E J V Collingwood-Thompson

2 Bn. Royal Welsh Fusiliers.

Died of wounds 10 September 1914.

Buried at Perreuse Chateau Franco British National Cemetery, Plot I Row 3 Grave 4.

Memorial: Plaque on a house with a dwarf stone column below, in La Ferte-sous-Jouarre.

Maps: 56/9/2514 Est.

Guardian; Town of La Ferte-sous-Jouarre.

[Peter Bennett]

This is the CWGC Page, have you looked in the park ?

http://www.cwgc.org/cwgcinternet/cemetery_...ry=79100&mode=1

[bobpike]

Peter,

Thank you, but CWGC are referring to the La Ferte Memorial to the Missing. The Collingwood-Thompson memorial is a private one erected by the family& is supposed to be on/in front of a hose (WFA website suggests a plaque & a column, both pictured).

Incidentally, I think the road by the park is called after C-T.

Bob

[Michelle Young]

Bob

The memorial is situated on a wall of a house which is next to a supermarket car park. If you walk towards town from the memorial with the river on your left, the supermarket is on your right. The house fronts onto the main drag of La Ferte. The memorial is on the wall on the right of the carpark. There is also a small monument on the ground below the wall plaque.

Regards, Michelle

[bobpike]

Michelle, THank you, I know where you mean. It is, in effect, not actually ON the main road but slightly off to the right?

You're a star, thank you,

Bob

[Michelle Young]

Hi Bob, head towards town on the little road that runs directly parralel to the river. (in days gone by always had to take that little road as the boys liked to throw stones in the river!) Then the supermarket carpark is on your right.

Cheers, Michelle

[bobpike]

Michelle,

I'm in your debt, pity the kids grow up isn't it!

Bob

[Michelle Young]

I concur with you about the maps, though, it took us about 40 minutes driving around Meteren the 1st time to find the Morris memorial.

I actually spotted the C-T memorial the first time I went to La Ferte, as we were driving along the main street, something caight my eye so we walked back after visiting the memorial to the missing.

Regards, Michelle

[Frank_East]

Recently visiting the Marne,I noticed that the open land adjacent and to the right of the La Ferte sous Jouarre Memorial and down to the Marne is named "Jardin du Lt James Collingwood Thompson"

Later I found his grave at Perreuse Chateau as the standard CWGC gravestone.However further research revealed that his original grave was situated against a low brick wall and had a private memorial column.

The events of September 1914 can be found via the translated version of http://batmarn.club.fr/prg270704.htm

The French record that Collingwood-Thompson (they spell Thompson as Thomson) was in charge of a detachment of 2nd Battalion RWF and was in action in the "street of the Squares when he was mortally struck by the ball of a sniper and died the following day at Pereuse".(That would be 10 September 1914)

The cemetery is a most interesting one to visit but is not indicated on the Michelin Tourist Map.

I found an AEF casualty who surprisingly had not been transferred to a AMBC cemetery.

Sergeant Douglas Urqahart's private gravestone reads:

"CO D 104th US Infantry

Wounded at Epied July 22

Died at Chateau Perreuse July 29 1918"

Two RFC crews lie side side; 2nd Lt Bryant and Lt Beaufort; Serjeant Windridge and 2nd Lt Leyden.

Two other casualties from the Second World War raised my interest as both from the General List appear to have on the face of it, SOE connections.

Perhaps as soon as I master the new machine I will be able to post the photographs.

Regards

Frank East

[TD60]

hello , here is the grave in pereuse.

[TD60]

He is died in Feb 1944 near Paris ; it sounds spying and special operations.

A little unusual : There is no cross under the name

Regards

[Frank_East]

The other casualty who I suspect of SOE type affiliation is Lieut Armand Richard Lansdell, again of the General List who died on 3 July 1944 aged 39.

Wiith a christian name Armand,he would appear to be French and his epitaph reads:

"A Mon Cher Epoux Et A Mon Pere.

Tous Nos Regrets Eternels"

Regards

Frank East

[Guest Simon Bull]

There is an excellent little guide book by Barrie Thorpe called "Private Memorials on the Western Front" which includes maps showing the locations of all the known private memorials. This is cheap to buy (if it is still in print) and I would recommend it to any battlefield traveller.

[bobpike]

Simon,

I agree (see my original posting), but in THIS case I found the map ineffectual - the rest are excellent!

Bob

[Stephen Nulty]

From CWGC

"The Chateau was used by French medical units throughout the First World War and the site of the cemetery was presented by the owner, Mme. Dumez, to the French Government. The cemetery contains 150 Commonwealth burials of the First World War, 24 of them unidentified, and all brought in from the surrounding battlefields. There are also 16 Second World War burials, most of them airmen."

Eric Joseph Denis Cauchi operated under the codename “Pedro” as part of the “Stockbroker” circuit. He was executed by the Germans in February 1944. He was on the General List, attached to SOE, and his name is included on the Valencay SOE Memorial.