"Pilgrimages and shrines"

[damiangt]

A large number of relatives visited France and Belgium in the immediate post-war period to find the graves of their lost ones. This topic hasn't attracted much interest, as far as I can see, and I hope to research this area. I would welcome interest from other pals if there is information out there.

I am not sure whether "pilgrimage" is the right term. All the definitions of the word refer to a journey made to a sacred place, which seems appropriate and I therefore intend to leave it this way.

The millions of bereaved families dealt with their grief in very different ways. My great grandmother adjusted to the loss of her 19 year old son by going into black clothing for life, wearing purple only twice as a concession to two of her children at their weddings. We all know about the death pennies, but what other "shrines" were created. Apparently my great grandmother kept a small shrine to her son made from dark marble in the fashion of a mausoleum in the front room.

I suspect there is a wealth of research information out there somewhere...

[dycer]

An interesting post and one that I cannot fully answer.

My Father lost his two Brothers in the War.I know their Mother died before the War and their Father died in the 1920's.A photogragh of my Grandfather taken in 1919 shows him quite aged but with no obvious signs of mourning.

As regards pilgrimage and remembrance.My Father never had the opportunity, in his younger years, to visit France(one Brother has a grave and the other is remembered on the Arras Memorial).He was too busy following his career as a Policeman,bringing up a family and having to deal with the unfinished WW1 business that we now call WW2.In his latter years when he had the opportunity to visit France he chose instead to visit Canada where two of my Sisters had emigrated to.

It would be unfair to say that he ever forgot his Brothers.He made sure I was named after one.A trench art matchbox cover was in daily use as were two shell-case bowls(ashtrays).He gave one of his Brother's Trios to one of my Sisters when she married(I now have them).The other set remained in the Princess Mary Box at the back of a drawer but I always knew what the Box and the Medals meant to him.

George

[burlington]

A book you may find useful is the scholarly work by David W Lloyd: Battlefield Tourism: Pilgrimage and the Commemoration of the Great War in Britain, Australia & Canada, 1919-1939.

Pub: Berg. 1998. ISBN 1 85973 179 1

The book also gives a wealth of references, many of them contemporary.

[Wargrave lass]

A book you may find useful is the scholarly work by David W Lloyd: Battlefield Tourism: Pilgrimage and the Commemoration of the Great War in Britain, Australia & Canada, 1919-1939.

Pub: Berg. 1998. ISBN 1 85973 179 1

The book also gives a wealth of references, many of them contemporary.

I think the word pilgrimage is an excellent word. It is exactly how I describe my visit to the Somme and Flanders over the week-end. On the subject of grave visits just after the war - apart from the fact that my Great Grandfather Enoch McNally is remembered at Thiepval, I don't think my Great Grandmother could afford the luxury of going over there. She had 5 young children to support so time and money were at a premium. I think a lot of families must have suffered in the same way.

[HERITAGE PLUS]

I knew a lady who for many years up to her passing away had in her lounge her husbands favourite chair on which nobody was allowed to sit at any time. He was kia with the Wiltshire Regiment.

Dave

[ianw]

Agree that the David W Lloyd book is excellent.

I also agree that the cost of a visit over there would have been prohibitive for a large proportion of the population. I know that my Grandfather went to the opening of the Menin Gate to honour his brother but is was a major expense for him even as an officer and gentleman.

[burlington]

Ref. my posting about David Lloyd's book.

If only I had the time, information and access to the various records quoted in Lloyd's book!

I do remember rasing this in the Forum before but this was generations, as Pals go, ago.

Martin

[jfkildea]

Just published is Bruce Scates, Return to Gallipoli: Walking the Battlefields of the Great War, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2006.

Jeff

[ceebee]

A few more books:

British Legion, A Souvenir of the Battlefields Pilgrimage August 1928 - This was a tour of the battlefields organised by the British Legion in co-operation with the British Empire Service League.

The Michelin Bygone Pilgrimage series.

Winter, J.M. (various editions), Sites of Memory, Sites of Mourning: the Great War in European Cultural History.

[healdav]

Didn't Kipling write a story abpout a woman who had an illegitimate son in the late 1890s, disguised him as a nephew and he is killed as an aviator in WW1 (she lets a German downed pilot die in revenge).

Then she goes to France to visit the grave, meeting a woman who takes photos of graves for a living, and when she gets to the cemetery finds a couple there (or rather in an information tent) who are so distraught and have been for weeks, that they can't remember their son's name.

Eventually she finds the cemetery and whilst looking for the grave meets the gardener who tells her that he will take her to where her son lies. The first time the appellation sone is or has ever been, used.

Amazing story. Sorry, don't remember the name of it.

[SFayers]

Not sure if it's the sort of thing you're meaning - but the attached image shows a picture postcard of the grave of one of my late grandmother's cousins Donald Phillips who died in 1925 of pulminary tuberculosis contracted whilst serving in the Royal Navy during the war. His mother and family (as far as I'm aware) never got to France to visit his brother Douglas' grave (Douglas was killed during the Battle of Miraumont in February 1917 whilst serving in the 1st Battalion RMLI - see my signature below), so as you can see from this photo she had his details included on Donald's gravestone. On the back of the postcard is simply written "Dear Donald".

cheers

Steve

[damiangt]

Absolutely! Come to think of it my Great Uncle (buried in Belgium) is commemorated on his parents' grave, too...

[ceebee]

Didn't Kipling write a story abpout a woman who had an illegitimate son in the late 1890s, disguised him as a nephew and he is killed as an aviator in WW1 (she lets a German downed pilot die in revenge).

Then she goes to France to visit the grave, meeting a woman who takes photos of graves for a living, and when she gets to the cemetery finds a couple there (or rather in an information tent) who are so distraught and have been for weeks, that they can't remember their son's name.

Eventually she finds the cemetery and whilst looking for the grave meets the gardener who tells her that he will take her to where her son lies. The first time the appellation sone is or has ever been, used.

Amazing story. Sorry, don't remember the name of it.

If it's the one I recall, the name of the work is The Gardener, written by Kipling in 1925 after a visit he made to the battlefield cemeteries. Here is a link to an article on the piece and the full version. Link to The Gardener

Chris