Matt Dixon Posted 9 December , 2003 Share Posted 9 December , 2003 Are there any of the pals who have managed to visit every CWGC WW1 cemetery in France and Belgium? I include in this WW2 ones that may only contain 1 WW1 grave, also communal cemeteries that may only contain a handful of WW1 graves. It is my ambition to visit every one, but with the total standing at only 388, I fear (not that it's a bad thing!) that I have several more trips to go yet! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Captain Chavasse Posted 9 December , 2003 Share Posted 9 December , 2003 Hi Matt, You're beating me! I'm also on a mission to say hello to all the boys over there. I've managed to visit 200 cemetaries in the salient and just beyond.(including WW2, and communal). Also been to about 100 in France. I think we've got about 2000 to go! Is that right? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul Reed Posted 9 December , 2003 Share Posted 9 December , 2003 In 25+ years I have never visited them all, and in some ways don't want to. I like to spend time in the cemeteries, not just pop in and photograph them or tick them off a list. Not that I am at all implying that either of you would do this, but I did meet someone on the Somme one year who had visited 300 cemeteries in one week!! What he could have seen of them, and what connection he could have made with those buried there, I really couldn't say. When I first went to Gallipoli we gave ourselves enough time to read every headstone inscription if we wanted to. It's possible there, but in F/F perhaps less so. But how much do we miss? It is a fine desire to see where all the lads are sleeping and I wish you well; "I saw beauty in death, in dead men, breath..." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Terry Denham Posted 9 December , 2003 Share Posted 9 December , 2003 Well, Chaps, you have set youself a task. Nobody has ever visited every CWGC cemetery - even the staff! There are 23,457 cemeteries on the CWGC list worldwide (as of yesterday) In Belgium there are 620 and in France there are 2939. This includes all types of cemetery and memorials to the missing (both wars). As a matter of interest, the country with the most is the United Kingdom with 12,363. If you would like the latest list from France or Belgium (or from any of the other 146 countries), email me off Forum and you can start ticking them off! PS. Belgium will increase to 621 when Langemark German Cemetery is added shortly when the final commemoration of the two British men buried there is sorted out - and, of course, the total will go up to 23,458! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kate Wills Posted 9 December , 2003 Share Posted 9 December , 2003 I'm not shure how this suggestion will be received but how about a sponsored cemetery tour, with proceeds to an appropriate charity? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris_Baker Posted 10 December , 2003 Share Posted 10 December , 2003 I'll volunteer to do a sponsored tour of the estaminets of Poperinghe and district, will that do? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peter Beckett Posted 10 December , 2003 Share Posted 10 December , 2003 Chris, put me down for this tour as long as the prices are 1914-1918 vintage Peter Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt Dixon Posted 10 December , 2003 Author Share Posted 10 December , 2003 I would echo Paul's sentiments that visting cemeteries is a time to pause for reflection and to soak up the atmosphere of a place. I will not visit a cemetery without walking up and down every row, and stopping to look at headstones that catch the eye. (In Lissjenhoek this took some 2 hours!) Be it visiting the huge cemeteries at Etaples (the saddest place I have ever seen, even more moving than Auschwitz), Tyne Cot or Serre No 2, down to the tiny Petit Vimy, Caesars Nose or Beehive Cemetery, I never cease to be moved by the surroundings, the atmosphere and the sacrifice. No matter how many times I read the words "A Soldier of the Great War" I still get a lump in my throat. I find 300 cemeteries in one week extraordinary in the extreme. Unless this was the only time that person would ever get to visit the area, then I think to cram that many into one week, kind of misses the point of visiting them! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muerrisch Posted 10 December , 2003 Share Posted 10 December , 2003 Given that I spent 13 years living on the German/ Dutch border, with cheap cars, cheap petrol and enough cash/ spare time AND a lovely wife not at all anti-touring, I can claim to have visited, and spent time in, all but a handful of cemeteries and memorials in F&F where the 2RWF men are buried/ commemorated. In the course of which, hundreds and hundreds of photos of headstones, and dozens of helpful [!] suggestions and comments to CWGC., all of which acted on courteously and reasonably quickly. I realise how lucky I am to be able to achieve this, and I thank [as I often do] CWGC for their loving care. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Captain Chavasse Posted 11 December , 2003 Share Posted 11 December , 2003 How many????? Hells Bells i'll be in one myself before i visit them all! Like Matt, i like to walk up and down the rows reading the names and inscriptions.In my minds eye i picture the soldiers standing up, not lying down, and i say hello to them all. I agree to try and visit them all is a mammoth task, and i would tick them off a list,but i won't just pull up, take a photo and leave. I've been back to certain cemetaries umpteen times because they seem to draw me in. My favourite is Railway Hollow. As soon as i'm out of the car i run down that slope and sit on the bench in there. Cemetary touring. Definately my ideal holiday. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dycer Posted 11 December , 2003 Share Posted 11 December , 2003 I have to agree with the earlier posts.It strikes me that trying to visit all Cemeteries is like trying to visit all the 92 English Football League Clubs. Another point that must be remembered.Relatives are still visiting for the first time and I'm not sure if they would take too kindly to one of us brushing past saying that's another one of my list!Iappreciate Pals would be more diplomatic! I speak from personal example(not of someone brushing past!) but being the first in the Family to visit in 1999. The casualties being. 582 Pte J Souness died 1915 buried in Sally-Sur-La-Lys Churchyard.An intimate little Cemetery containing 48 burials.If you ever visit, there is/was a nice restaraunt adjacent. 325002 Sjt G.S. Souness died 1918, commemorated Arras Memorial.A massive Cemetery containing 34734 burials.When I found a Cemetery near where he was killed it was a sobering sight to see Headstones saying this Grave contains the bodies of 50 Unknown Soldiers. My Uncles by the way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andigger Posted 9 May , 2005 Share Posted 9 May , 2005 Matt, Captain Chavasse... Did you make it to all of them? Andy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robbie Posted 9 May , 2005 Share Posted 9 May , 2005 I'm not shure how this suggestion will be received but how about a sponsored cemetery tour, with proceeds to an appropriate charity? <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Great idea Kate. Count me in. Robbie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marco Posted 10 May , 2005 Share Posted 10 May , 2005 Personally I need to visit 64 cemeteries before I have visit all 1000- 'major' cemeteries (20+ graves?) in France and Belgium as listed with photographs in 'Silent Cities'. http://www.xs4all.nl/~aur/Cemeteries/cemeteries.htm After that I don't know if I will visit all minor CWGC ones in France and Belgium or if I will switch to French and German cemeteries. For me personally these do not hold as much attraction as the CWGC ones. Apart from the honoring and remembering ect I find it nice to have a goal on our trips and take in whatever else we bump into. It's nice to check every IGN 'mon.' to see if it's WW1 related or not. Regards, Marco Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
East Lancs Posted 24 May , 2005 Share Posted 24 May , 2005 WW1 Cemeteries.com Hi I am a new poster, 6 years ago myself and my brother in law decided to retrace Sidney Hurst steps and visit all of the cemeteries in his Silent Cities book, as well as the ones which had not been constructed at the time of publishing. Well we have finally finished them. The total number, I believe is 940, we have also visited many more along the way. Our travels have taken us from Nieuwpoort to Liege and Calais to Marseille and all four coasts of France. Our only stipulation was that we would pay our respects in each and everyone of them, not simply jump out of the car and take a picture before moving on, it was important to us that we walked around each and every one personally. The most we visited in one day was 26, this was in the heavily concentrated areas such as the central Somme region, more usually we visited about 15 per day and that usually took us from 10am til 6pm. How the man who said he visited 300 in a week did it, I'll never know, I would have thought it nigh on impossible unless he simply stuck his head out of the car window and was off again. This reall has been a hell of a task and cost a fortune! But it was well worth it, we get a great deal of pride out of the fact that we have completed what we set out to do over 6 years ago. We started at Combles Communal Cemetery Extension and ended at Valley Cemetery Vis-en-Artois 6 years later, we then returned to Combles to complete the circle. We decided as a record of our journies, to create a website, this site now contains over 1000 different Military cemeteries and also a large number of memorials from around the world, including places such as Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Singapore and Thailand, again each and every oone of them visited by ourselves. The site was recently mentioned by the Sydney Morning Herald and was also site of the week in Family Tree Magazine (USA). Please take a look. The site is not there as a symbol of our visiting the cemeteries but its purpose is to remember all who fell in this terrible conflict. http://ww1cemeteries.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doogal Posted 24 May , 2005 Share Posted 24 May , 2005 East Lancs, That is impressive. Quite a task. I am genuinely impressed. I'm considering going to just one, and it seems like a logistical challenge making sure those who wish to go, get to go, and those who don't wish to, get to go somewhere interesting too, and that the mode of transport is suitable for all ages (I want to cycle and take a tent, but am a lone voice in that dept.) regards doogal Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TD60 Posted 24 May , 2005 Share Posted 24 May , 2005 WW1 Cemeteries.com Hi I am a new poster, 6 years ago myself and my brother in law decided to retrace Sidney Hurst steps and visit all of the cemeteries in his Silent Cities book, as well as the ones which had not been constructed at the time of publishing. Well we have finally finished them. The total number, I believe is 940, we have also visited many more along the way. . Please take a look. The site is not there as a symbol of our visiting the cemeteries but its purpose is to remember all who fell in this terrible conflict. http://ww1cemeteries.com <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Hello Really great work. What was the criteria for those 940 cemeteries in the Silent Cities book. Over 40 burials or something like that ? Best regards Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
East Lancs Posted 24 May , 2005 Share Posted 24 May , 2005 WW1 Cemeteries.com Hello Really great work. What was the criteria for those 940 cemeteries in the Silent Cities book. Over 40 burials or something like that ? Best regards <{POST_SNAPBACK}> TD60, Hello there, yes it was, he set out to visit those cemeteries with 40 or more burials, I suppose you have to draw the line somewhere, almost every Communal cemetery in Northern France and Belgium has burials, to have visited them all would have taken a lifetime. His achievement was all the more impressive when you think of the transport he would have had in 1928/29, I certainly don't think he would have had the luxury of flying to Marseille and Strasbourg as we did. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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