Jump to content
Free downloads from TNA ×
The Great War (1914-1918) Forum

Remembered Today:

Strange Occurrences on the Western Front


Rodge Dowson

Recommended Posts

The Professor with the stone head was Celtic expert Dr Anne Ross. Not sure about the military cult aspect. I remember seeing the story on the old 'Nationwide' TV programme circa 1977 and it is summarised in the Readers Digest book 'Myths and Legends of Britain'.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

My story is more of a strange co-incidence than 'spooky' experience. On my first trip to Ieper I visited the Menin Gate in Hounour of my Uncle commerated there. I've always had an interest in genealogy so I took a random photo of a namesake I noticed passing one of the panels.

Several months later I was in e-mail contact with a lady who was tracing her relatives from the Gateshead area. I sent her a link to the GWGC site with the details of Pte. 20990 James Goodman 2nd Bn. Northumberland Fusiliers which turned out to be her Grandfather. She knew he had been killed in WWI but had no details.

Later I went back to the photo I had taken & found that it was the same person. I confirmed it by checking the register for the other neighbouring names on the memorial. So out of 50,000+ names I randomly find the Grandfather of a woman in another country who I contacted randomly on one of the thousands of internet forums.

Like I said, a strange co-incidence.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

John - your experience is one of those very common occurences that suggest that the Dead crave recognition and sort of wave to you to attract your attention! Nonsense of course. Just coincidence! Or is it?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Met a chap while walking near the sunken lane and we had a long conversation on the subject. When I asked him if he did actually believe in ghosts, he replied “No” and promptly disappeared.

Odd that. :P

Link to comment
Share on other sites

John - your experience is one of those very common occurences that suggest that the Dead crave recognition and sort of wave to you to attract your attention! Nonsense of course. Just coincidence! Or is it?

Interesting suggestion! It does seem to happen a lot. My post a couple of pages back:

"At the start of a trip to the battlefields, I was talking to a lady who told me that she had a relative who was killed in WW1, but that she knew nothing at all apart from his name. Not when or where he was killed, his regiment – nothing.

At the very first British cemetery we visited, she found a headstone with his name on it. We checked in the register ….. and it was him.

Now that really was a chance in a million."

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Greyhound - yes this is a common experince and seems to happen so often that it is the norm out there.

Witness my experience at Longueval last September 16th. I went for an early morning walk into a war cemetery. A particular grave stood out illuminated by the rising son. The man concerned had died on September 16th 1916 exactly 90 years earlier and his grave inscription read "Until the Dawn".

Yes, this inscription is fairly commonplace and I did look at other graves in the cemetery but it still makes you think.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

John - your experience is one of those very common occurences that suggest that the Dead crave recognition and sort of wave to you to attract your attention!

For Gods sake, don't you start :D

Link to comment
Share on other sites

IanW and Greyhound et al

The occurances that you are describing are jus examples of pure serendipity. You only remember them because they are so startling, whilst forgetting the huge number of times that nothing out of the ordinary happens. It is the same effect whereby old people have selective memory when it comes to summers supposedly being longer and more pleasant than they are now.

Andy

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Andy - the rational part of me wants to agree with you but serendipity does sometimes seem a bit overdone out there sometimes. Just my selective memory talking of course !

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Andy - the rational part of me wants to agree with you but serendipity does sometimes seem a bit overdone out there sometimes. Just my selective memory talking of course !

I'm not insinuating you are old by the way :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I was one of the members who replied to the original post,like you I was annoyed the thread has been locked,I and many more feel the subject has relevance to the study of the Great War,but we have to abide by the rules made by owner of the Forum.If I may be allowed to quote from one of Ben Franklins gems.

Democracy is Two wolves and a Lamb voting on what to have for lunch

Liberty is A well armed lamb contesting the result.

Joan

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I haven't had any experiences myself while visiting the battlefields, but I remember the story of a famous Dutch musician, Bram Vermeulen.

About ten years ago Vermeulen, who sadly passed away in 2004, visited the trench of death near Dixmuide. When he walked through the trench he suddenly became very emotional and saw flashbacks of terrible things that had happened there. He even started talking local dialect. Being from The Hague understanding this dialect would be quite an achievement, let alone speak it. Vermeulen, a very down to earth-kind of guy, was convinced he was the reincarnation of a Belgian WO-1 veteran.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

IanW and Greyhound et al

The occurances that you are describing are jus examples of pure serendipity. You only remember them because they are so startling, whilst forgetting the huge number of times that nothing out of the ordinary happens.

That's true, of course. But not from the point of view of the lady in my anecdote, as it was the only time she had been there.

4.gif

Link to comment
Share on other sites

That's true, of course. But not from the point of view of the lady in my anecdote, as it was the only time she had been there.

The exact same thing has happened to me at Hooge. I was visiting with a friend of mine called Bob Barrass and we walked straight up to the grave of his great uncle who he thought had been killed at Mons. It was just a massive coincidence and we took it as such. In reality the odds of it happening are probably a lot shorter than you imagine.

Andy

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Andy - Yes just one more serendipitous "massive coincidence".

Again, the rational part of me agrees that the odds of such a thing, although not calcuable, are smaller than we might think. Interesting though that you used the word "massive" to place a magnitude on the coincidence.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

IanW and Greyhound et al

The occurances that you are describing are jus examples of pure serendipity. You only remember them because they are so startling, whilst forgetting the huge number of times that nothing out of the ordinary happens. It is the same effect whereby old people have selective memory when it comes to summers supposedly being longer and more pleasant than they are now.

Andy

Max,

Good point & I'll always take the rational reason for episodes like this however this was the only random photo I've taken on several trips to Flanders, there hasn't been a "huge number" of ordinary happenings to forget.

I just wish I had the same luck with odds when trying to pick Lottery numbers!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

From the Owlman before I go home,

I only became interested in WW1 and researching relatives after this experience.

My niece when she was 4 yrs old had an imaginary friend called Albert. He told her he was a soldier in the war and died after being stabbed in the tummy. This was some 13 years ago - everyone lost interest when a couple of years later my niece told her Mum that Albert had gone.

I have a long interest in all aspects of the Brit military 1700-1840 and on an impromptu visit to the Derby Local Studies decided to see if I could find Albert. His full name was Albert Smith - a too common surname!

I was given two electoral rolls and Albert's name came to the fore within a couple of pages. I then found an entry in the midland railway roll of honour and Albert was found quite easily. Later I found him again in the RC missing list for 1917, the St Paul's memorial service and have now quite a bit of info on him. I've just about located the Somme trenches where I think he might have been killed on 3/9/16 and the search goes on. There appears to be some interest for me to do an article in the future when the story has come together.

Basically Albert appears to want to be found - I think his medals will turn up one day and I hope to visit his memorial this year. Tracing other WW1 relatives has turned out to be a lot mor difficult!

Cheers

Link to comment
Share on other sites

May as well add my own family ghost story.

My aunt was born in 1915 (she died in 1947). Her French godfather was her cousin, Antonin Gautier, who was then serving in the French Army, later becoming a pilot serving in SPA80. He sent her a stuffed toy animal. Three years later she woke up screaming. She had a dream where her toy had been destroyed.

A day or so later they received word that on that day Antonin's SPAD had collided with another, and he had been killed (the other pilot landed safely).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

From the Owlman before I go home,

... His full name was Albert Smith - a too common surname! ...

How did you get to Albert Smith from 'Albert'?

Jon

Link to comment
Share on other sites

My story is more of a strange co-incidence than 'spooky' experience. On my first trip to Ieper I visited the Menin Gate in Hounour of my Uncle commerated there. I've always had an interest in genealogy so I took a random photo of a namesake I noticed passing one of the panels.

Several months later I was in e-mail contact with a lady who was tracing her relatives from the Gateshead area. I sent her a link to the GWGC site with the details of Pte. 20990 James Goodman 2nd Bn. Northumberland Fusiliers which turned out to be her Grandfather. She knew he had been killed in WWI but had no details.

Later I went back to the photo I had taken & found that it was the same person. I confirmed it by checking the register for the other neighbouring names on the memorial. So out of 50,000+ names I randomly find the Grandfather of a woman in another country who I contacted randomly on one of the thousands of internet forums.

Like I said, a strange co-incidence.

Well, my great great grandmother was a Goodman and here I am reading this thread.

Spooky eh?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well, my great great grandmother was a Goodman and here I am reading this thread.

Spooky eh?

And what is even weirder is that one of great great grandma Goodman's grandsons was killed in WW1.

Here is his CWGC entry:

http://www.cwgc.org/search/casualty_detail...casualty=457583

Note that his next of kin, my great grandfather, has his mothers maiden name of Goodman as his midde name.

So, what do you make of that?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

And what is even weirder is that one of great great grandma Goodman's grandsons was killed in WW1.

Here is his CWGC entry:

http://www.cwgc.org/search/casualty_detail...casualty=457583

Note that his next of kin, my great grandfather, has his mothers maiden name of Goodman as his midde name.

So, what do you make of that?

This just gets more and more bizarre...when I was younger I used to go out with a girl from Birkenhead, beautiful girl, but a mouth like a docker. :)

Andy

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...